"For as long as any cat can remember, four clans have ruled the forest: ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan and RiverClan."

In this book series, cats run wild in large family groups, fighting each other, falling in love, and worshipping their starry ancestors.

Those of you expecting sweet little stories about cats lazing about licking each other and falling in love are in for quite a shock (although that happens too, of course). The books are quite mature, thanks in part to Erin Hunter's Anyone Can Die policy, and the series can be quitegraphic, as the characters face certain death and possible annihilation at least once a series, and, early on, usually once a book. They also grapple with questions of faith, loyalty, honor, and responsibility on a very regular basis. These books are about as child-friendly as Watership Down.

Yet kids are the target audience.

The story centers on four "Clans" of cats that have lived in a forest and followed the spirits of their warrior ancestors (known as StarClan) for generations. ThunderClan (the focal Clan) lives in a forest and stalks their prey while priding themselves on their courage. ShadowClan, masters of stealth and night hunting, live in a marsh and need all their cunning to gather enough food to feed themselves. RiverClan cats love water and are known for swimming and being brilliant tacticians. WindClan cats are extremely fast, and they chase down rabbits on the open moorland. Many years have distilled the Clans and made them set in their ways and their prejudices, but new threats to the forest force them to start adapting to change and abandoning their prejudice. The events of the series take place over several generations, and show how the Clans change in those times.

Later books introduce several new groups of characters, such as a group of mercenaries called BloodClan, a fifth Clan named SkyClan that was driven out of the forest many years ago, a "Tribe" of cats that live in the mountains and worship their own set of ancestors, a pseudo-Clan living in a Twolegplace and facing its own unique problems, a mysterious group of predecessors to the Clans known as the Ancients, and the Dark Forest, the vengeful spirits of cats that believe themselves wronged by the Clans. This series definitely has Loads and Loads of Characters.

The first, called The Prophecies Begin (originally known simply as Warriors or Warrior Cats, depending on where you live, until it received a name for a 2015 rerelease of the series) focuses on a house cat named Rusty. Bored with his comfortable and simple life, he ventures out into the forest where he is given the opportunity to join ThunderClan. However, he must deal with the hardships of the wild alongside the racism of his Clanmates, and he ends up being the Chosen One.

Into the Wild

Fire and Ice

Forest of Secrets

Rising Storm

A Dangerous Path

The Darkest Hour

The second arc, The New Prophecy, stars the next generation of the Clan cats. A group composed of the kits of the previous arc's main characters (plus newcomer Crowfeather) set out on a journey to unravel a mysterious prophecy, forging strong bonds in the process. Meanwhile, calamity strikes in the forest and all four Clans find themselves facing possible destruction.

Midnight

Moonrise

Dawn

Starlight

Twilight

Sunset

The third arc, Power of Three is a mostly character driven series. It tells the tale of another new generation of Clan cats, this time burdened with mysterious powers and the secret of an ancient prophecy. It also delves deep into the past, revealing the secrets forgotten by time.

The Sight

Dark River

Outcast

Eclipse

Long Shadows

Sunrise

The fourth arc, Omen Of The Stars, continues to deal with the mysterious prophecy from Power of Three. As the cats struggle to unearth the truth about their purpose, the old foes of the Clans are rising. Strengthened by years worth of animosity, they are preparing to wage an all-out war on the Clans. This arc was intended to serve as a Grand Finale to the modern day series.

The Fourth Apprentice

Fading Echoes

Night Whispers

Sign of the Moon

The Forgotten Warrior

The Last Hope

The fifth arc, Dawn of the Clans, takes place decades before the original series, and focuses on a group of cats that are destined to form the Warrior Clans.

The Sun Trail

Thunder Rising

The First Battle

The Blazing Star

A Forest Divided

Path of the Stars

The sixth arc, A Vision of Shadows, returns to the story of the modern Clans. A ThunderClan apprentice discovers that it is his destiny to become a medicine cat, but first, he must embark on a journey that will determine the fate of the four Clans from his home, and the lost Clan, SkyClan.

The Apprentice's Quest

Thunder and Shadow

Shattered Sky

There are also plenty of spin-off titles out and coming soon, such as the extra long Super Editions (extra-long standalone novels), Field Guides (which give additional information on the Clans and also include short stories that involve both the founding of the Clans and some of the modern characters), Manga installments (which generally serve as side stories to the main series), and novellas (which flesh out events that are briefly described in or give backstory to the main series).

Its two sister series, Seekers (a series focusing on a group of bears coming together to fight global warming, which is currently on its second arc) and Survivors (a series by a different author/editor team working under the Erin Hunter pen-name, featuring dogs surviving in a post-apocalyptic city) are also worth checking out.

As of 2016, Alibaba Pictures has obtained movie rights to the series, with David Heyman named as the producer.

Due to the series' spoiler-filled nature, including Spoiler Titles and even character names, all spoilers aside from the newest main-series book (Thunder and Shadow) and side book (Hawkwing's Journey) may be unmarked.

This series provides examples of:

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Tropes A-C

Abdicate the Throne: Pinestar, leader of ThunderClan, left the Clan to become a kittypet near the end of his life.

...a queen who did not care for her new charge, who bit it and nipped it and deprived it of milk as punishment for being born at all.

Crookedstar's Promise gives us another example in Rainflower. After her son twists his jaw, she forces a name change ("Stormkit" to "Crookedkit"), makes him sleep in another nest, looks down on him constantly, and arranges things so that Oakheart gets special treatment and Crookedstar feels alone.

Accidental Hero: Scourge became the ruthless warlord he was in part by trying to live up to a reputation for toughness he got for beating up two dogs. One of these incidents was a complete fabrication and in the other the dog became scared of Scourge's massive shadow and ran while Scourge was yowling at him.

The series titles (The OS for The Original Series, TNP for The New Prophecy, TPOT for Power of Three, OOTS for Omen of the Stars, DOTC for Dawn of the Clans, AVOS for "A Vision of Shadows").

Book titles (TDH for The Darkest Hour, FQ for Firestar's Quest, BP for Bluestar's Prophecy, NW for Night Whispers, BotC for Battles of the Clans, T4A for The Fourth Apprentice, and SotC for Secrets of the Clans, to name a few... This created a slight issue when Code of the Clans came along, because there was already a CotC from Cats of the Clans. There were even forum threads debating on what to call it - the most common form is C2otC). A later problem came when Tallstar's Revenge and Thunder Rising were announced as releases for the same years. Fans called them both "TR" until they realized the problem. Some alternate acronyms were made as solutions, such as TaR and TSR for Tallstar's Revenge, and ThR and TRi for Thunder Rising.

Some characters, places, etc (HF for Hawkfrost, DF for The Dark Forest, PoNS for The Place of No Stars, another name for the Dark Forest).

Related websites (WW for Warrior's Wish, while the Warriors Official Forum is called either the OF for "Official Forum", WOF for "Warriors Official Forum", or WCF for "Warrior Cats Forum").

Action Girl: Almost every single she-cat in the series is just as competent as any one of the male characters that are not named Scourge or Lionblaze. Even she-cats that you wouldn't expect to be badass turn out to be this, such as medicine cats (in Into the Wild, Yellowfang defeats The Dragon and nearly takes down the Big Bad), queens (they help out during Twilight's badger attack, and Lionblaze successfully teaches them some fighting skills in The Last Hope that are seen in the Final Battle), and elders (Mousefur and Goldenflower drive away a freaking badger on their own in Twilight). The number one example of this is probably Ivypool. She's female, but she's also the main character that doles out the most asskicking (well, other than Lionblaze, but Ivypool actually worked for her strength).

Action Mom: Though she-cats take a break from their warrior duties when they have kits, they still have to be ready to protect their kits if the camp is attacked. One gift that new leaders are often given as part of their nine lives is the love a mother has for her kits, in order to help them protect the Clan; this life is often expected to feel gentle, and the new leader is often shocked by how painfully fierce it is - mothers are willing to face any amount of enemies or even die for their kits. One particular Action Mom is Leafstar: leaders normally are not allowed to have kits because it conflicts with their duties, but Leafstar decided to have kits anyway.

Action Prologue: The prologue of the very first book features a fight between RiverClan and ThunderClan.

Adaptation Dye-Job: In the actual books, Millie is a silver tabby. On the manga covers, she's pinkish-brown colored. The illustrator explained that when he got the character outlines, she was only described as a tabby, so he pictured her as rosy brown, and didn't find out her real color until he had already colored the cover of the second volume. He discussed with his editor whether to change it, but they decided that it would be dull to have two gray cats next to each other.

Adapted Out: The SkyClan and the Stranger manga trilogy (and bonus manga at the end of SkyClan's Destiny) is unique among Warriors mangas in that they try to make all SkyClan cats appear, or at least be mentioned. While almost the entire Clan is in there, the only ones to not show up or be mentioned at all in either the trilogy or the bonus manga are Sagepaw and Egg, for whatever reason. Sagepaw appears in later books; Egg does not.

Adult Fear: The series deals with this a couple times. The forest is dangerous, so it's always frightening to the characters when a young cat disappears... one mother has to deal with the fact that her daughter's hindlegs are paralyzed so she'll never live a normal life and might die early... another mother's kits go missing, and she's forced to realize that her mate may have kidnapped them to live with him.

Adventures in Comaland: In The Sight, Poppyfrost has greencough, and has a dream about being in StarClan's forest. Jayfeather is also there, because of his power, and stops her from dying.

Advertised Extra: Tigerstar is this for the second and third books of Tigerstar and Sasha. In the first book, he was the love interest. However, in the second book (on which he is the only one on the cover), he shows up, asks the hero a question, and is never seen again! In book three, he only appears in dream sequences. It's like the writers didn't know what to do with him, so they hid him in a cupboard and hoped no one would find him.

Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many times the Clans learn the value of working together, they always divide back up once the danger has passed. Wanting to unite the Clans is treated as a big red "I Am A Villain" flag. Then again, they are cats. And the first time someone did try to unite the Clans, it was with the intention of taking over the whole forest and seizing power for himself.

All Genes Are Co-Dominant: According to feline genetics Hollyleaf should have been a tortie. There's much more, but in general cat genetics are a lot more complicated than the Erins know about. They even admit they don't know poop about cat coat genetics.

There are multiple male tortoiseshells in Warriors, which are incredibly rare (about a one in three thousand chance). At least one of them, Redtail, is also a father, despite almost all male tortoiseshells being sterile.

In Forest of Secrets, Brokenstar survives just long enough to suddenly comprehend that he's dying and get an Oh Crap! moment. It was exactly the kind of death that he deserved.

Midway through Rising Storm, Fireheart finds Whitethroat by a Thunderpath. Whitethroat gets hit by a car, but he still keeps talking for a little bit before he dies.

At the end of Rising Storm, Fireheart finds Yellowfang dying on smoke inhalation. Before she dies, she confesses all her secrets (which he already knew), and gives him reassurance that it's a good way to die.

In A Dangerous Path, Bluestar holds on just long enough to apologize to her kits, be forgiven, and to tell Fireheart how much faith she has in him before she dies.

In The Darkest Hour, after Bone strikes him down, Whitestorm reassures Firestar that it's been a pleasure being deputy and tells him that Graystripe was always destined to be his deputy before dying.

In The Darkest Hour, Darkstripe rambles aimlessly as he dies. Strangely, it actually worked as a send off for the character.

In Moonrise, Feathertail lives just long enough to tease Crowpaw and echo his words before dying.

In Twilight, Cinderpelt tells Leafpool to be brave as she dies.

In Sunset, Hawkfrost taunts Brambleclaw one last time and warns him that nothing is over before he dies.

In The Last Hope, Hollyleaf forgives Leafpool and says that she's not afraid to die with her last breaths.

Later in The Last Hope, Spottedleaf tells Firestar that she can't travel with him any longer as her spirit fades away for good. Subverted when she has one last thing to say to him, but it's too late and she dies with it unresolved.

Probably the most badass one ever occurs in The Last Hope when Firestar uses his dying moments to rid the world of his Arch-Enemy forever. His last words aren't a lament, but a badass quip.

Alternate Animal Affection: There's no single equivalent of a kiss in Warriors, but cats tend to press their cheeks together, lick each other, and/or entwine their tails when they're emotionally close, regardless of whether the relationship is platonic or romantic.

Alternative Calendar: The Clans measure everything by moons instead of months and have alternate names for the seasons because they're cats.

Always Chaotic Evil: Dogs, great StarClan! Except for the pair in the Ravenpaw's Path trilogy. At first they may be ungrateful to Ravenpaw and Barley for saving their lives (attacking them as soon as they're free), but later they return the favor to Ravenpaw, Barley, and the ThunderClan cats by helping chase off BloodClan. And also the dogs in Warrior's Refuge; they seem pretty vicious to the barn cats, but once Millie reveals she can speak a little dog it's revealed that they chase cats not to catch them, but because it's fun.

Tigerstar suffered from this. He claims that he was a great warrior, but as soon as Bluestar discovered Firestar, he was reduced to "a great warrior, just not as good as Firestar".

Ashfur in the second arc, Warrior Cats: The New Prophecy. He would be the best choice for deputy...if not for Brambleclaw. He could have been StarClan's chosen one... if not for Brambleclaw. He could have had Squirrelflight's affections...if not for Brambleclaw. See the pattern?

Gray Wing from Dawn of the Clans to his brother Clear Sky. He's the Tribe's second best hunter after Clear Sky, second place in their little brother Jagged Peak's Big Brother Worship, and second place romantically to Clear Sky's first mate Bright Stream and second mate Storm. It stems from Gray Wing being a deconstruction of series protagonist Firestar.

Firestar went out of his way to solve several crimes in the original series, such as Redtail's death and some kit-killings in ShadowClan.

Minor character Shrewtooth later tries his paws at it by solving the mystery of Leafstar's lost kits in the SkyClan and the Stranger manga minutes before Leafstar herself worked it out.

Ambiguous Time Period: The series appears to take place in the present day. However, nobody knows how long in the "past" the background lore goes back - Word of God has flip-flopped on whether the Clans have been in the forest for 50 years or 30 years, both of which are considered to be too short by fans considering all the leaders and generation gaps we know about. When you go all the way back - before the Clans were formed, before the Tribe was formed, back when their ancestors lived by the lake - there seems to be modern construction equipment; it describes yellow vehicles. Most people accept the series as taking place slightly in the future because of this, but it's not clear exactly when.

Tigerstar's desire to be leader of ThunderClan (and later of all four Clans) is what makes him a villain; he will do just about anything to achieve his goal.

Brambleclaw feels the very same ambition that drove his father but, well aware of what his father became, he is determined to not allow his ambition to control him (still implying that ambition is the opposite of good, even though Whitestorm also mentions in the first series that Firestar has quite a bit of ambition himself).

American Kirby is Hardcore: Some of the other-language versions of the books are more hardcore than the originals: for instance, compare this American cover◊ to this Russian cover◊. There's a lot more where that came from: The title translation is also subject to this having been translated as Raging Storm rather then Rising Storm. Also, the French title for Fire and Ice roughly means In Fire and In Blood. Inverted with the Japanese covers. The Japanese cover for The Darkest Hour, which is one of the most carnage-tastic books in the series, is of two fluffy kitties smiling.

Ancient Conspiracy: The Dark Forest, which has been plotting to destroy the Clans since long before Firestar came to the forest.

Ancient Keeper: Midnight is a helpful badger who can speak Cat. She seems to have an infinite amount of knowledge, and she always shows up to inform the heroes of the next plot point. Also, she's been around since the dawn of time.

And This Is For...: In The Blazing Star, Star Flower betrays Thunder and helps her father One Eye attack Thunder's father, Clear Sky. Later in the fight, Gray Wing (Thunder's uncle and Clear Sky's brother) kicks her back, thinking with satisfaction, "That one's for Thunder".

Angry Guard Dog: Guard dogs appear at the prologue of A Dangerous Path, brought to the Treecutplace compound by humans to find the arsonists who set the forest on fire in Rising Storm.

Crowfeather: Is that what you think? Don't you know how I feel about you? And how much I hate myself for feeling that way about another cat so soon after Feathertail's death? I loved her, I really did! How can I love you too?

Animal Religion: The Clans have a version of ancestor worship. When they die, their spirits go to join StarClan, their version of the afterlife. StarClan grants the Clan leaders their nine lives, and also give visions and direction to the Clans' medicine cats.

Animal Talk: Several different types of animals can speak, but each species speaks a different "language" and they are all unintelligible to each other (and to humans). The cats can only understand one or two words that the dog pack speaks (namely, "pack" and "kill"), while Midnight the badger is highly unusual for having learned to talk to cats, as well as foxes and rabbits. It's even mentioned that there are different languages among cats in different regions (Midnight can speak a couple of those others too). The Tribe of Rushing Water, for instance, speaks the same language as the Clans, but are mentioned to have a strange accent and use different idioms.

Midnight: Fox and rabbit also. They speak... not of interest. Fox talk is all of kill. Rabbit have thistledown for brain.

Most of the fan-made YouTube Warriors animations. Some of the more prominent animators out there even like to slap on a full head of human hair onto their cats. Firestar is always drawn as a brunette, and Tigerstar with black hair. Either way, it's anatomically incorrect.

Most fanart of Warriors has taken to adding a large tuft of hair on the cats' foreheads, even though real cats don't have such tufts. Others will draw a gold star on a cat's forehead to signify that the cat's a leader, when this is never described in the books.

James Barry's manga also is in a more animesque style than the other artists. He tends to give cats tufts of fur on their heads too, but for the most part it actually looks like fur. The only example where it actually was hair was Husker◊ from the Graystripe trilogy.

Breezepelt in Power of Three and Omen of the Stars. He's the son of Crowfeather, but he allies himself with the ghosts of the villains in an attempt to overthrow the society of the characters.

Yellowfang's son Brokenstar is one of the first villains to be shown in the entire series. In fact, he was so evil that Yellowfang had to kill him to save ThunderClan.

Anyone Can Die: Beyond the large amount of minor characters and villains that get killed, even important characters like Yellowfang, Bluestar, Feathertail, Cinderpelt, Flametail, Hollyleaf (for reals this time), Spottedleaf's spirit, and Firestar get killed off.

Tigerstar is the Big Bad, with his son Brambleclaw as the hero during the New Prophecy arc. However, while Tigerstar seeks to rule the world, Brambleclaw wants to stop him and says he'd rather die than join him.

Clear Sky was this for Thunder in Dawn Of The Clans until his Heel–Face Turn in The First Battle.

Arc Welding: Some books have melded two subplots together to make their story through use of a retcon.

Crookedstar's Promise introduces the Dark Forest to the past and shows it influencing the events of book as early as Fire and Ice through use of Crookedstar's story.

Yellowfang's Secret makes it so that SkyClan is directly responsible for the rise of Brokenstar, even though they had died out years before his birth.

Arc Words: Some of the prophecies. "Pack, pack, kill, kill" in A Dangerous Path.

Ascended Fanboy: Deconstructed in SkyClan and the Stranger. Sol's mother always got him and his siblings to behave by telling them stories of the Sky Warriors, which were the SkyClan cats from the days before the Clan was destroyed. Sol always loved the stories of the Sky Warriors. When his mom left him at the home of a crazy cat lady, he wished that he could become a Sky Warrior, because he thought that if he did, she would come back. After he grew up, he learned that SkyClan had been rebuilt, and wanted nothing more than to become one of its members. Leafstar, SkyClan's leader, let him join, but no matter how much he tried he didn't have what it took. She promised that she would let him become a warrior after he had proved himself, but Sol, fueled by his dreams from kithood, was impatient. To try to become a SkyClan warrior faster, he kidnapped Leafstar's kits, planning to "find" them after she realized they were missing and become a warrior because of it. Leafstar caught him however, and exiled him, realizing that he had none of the qualities of a true warrior. Because of this, Sol turned against the Clans, and vowed to destroy their Code of Honor to prove that it was worthless.

Asskicking Equals Authority: Tends to be the case with Clan leaders, because they're often one of the strongest warriors in the Clan when they're chosen to be deputy.

Avenging the Villain: Darkstripe and Hawkfrost's motivation for attempting to kill Firestar is mainly vengeance for Tigerstar's death.

Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are almost the poster couple for this pairing. There's at least four fights between them a book.

Also, Firestar and Sandstorm in the first arc suit this trope, too. Sandstorm hates Firestar until he saves her life in Fire and Ice, when she starts to like him.

Axe Crazy: Plenty of the villains are this. Most notably Mapleshade, whose start of evil was when she very violently murdered cats she felt wronged her based on what she believed were the restless spirits of her kits, and then later on she generally treated everyone with a Slasher Smile.

Back for the Dead: Hollyleaf. After being presumed dead for four books, she returns to ThunderClan in The Forgotten Warrior, only to be killed by Hawkfrost in the next book, The Last Hope.

Stormfur and Brook appear in the last paragraph of Twilight, just in time to be important characters again in Sunset, the finale of The New Prophecy.

For the Grand Finale of the series, The Last Hope, the Erins brought back most of the cast of the Original Series, along with several minor characters who hadn't appeared for a while, and a ton of other characters from the backstory of the series: Adderfang, Brindleface, Broken Shadow, Cedarstar (mistakenly called "Cedarheart"), Cinderpelt (in person - er, cat) Fallen Leaves, Flametail, Frostfur, Goosefeather, Half Moon, Hollyflower, Lionheart, Longtail, Mosskit, Owl Feather, Redtail, Runningwind, Silverstream, Slant, Snowfur, Sparrowfeather, Sunstar, Swiftbreeze, Swiftpaw, Tawnyspots, and Whitestorm all make their returns here.

In Sunset, Cinderpelt is revealed to have been reincarnated as Sorreltail's daughter Cinderkit.

Also, Heavystep, who died but managed to stay on the cast list for quite a while afterwards due to a Continuity Snarl. Similarly, Smokepaw fell off a cliff in Dawn but remained in the books afterward, even being given a warrior name, Smokefoot.

The Clan Leaders probably count as well, since they literally have nine lives and spend a few moments dead after losing each one before being revived (minus the wound/disease that killed them). Once the ninth is gone though, they are Killed Off for Real.

Backstory: Explored a lot with different characters. There's The Rise of Scourge, Bluestar's Prophecy, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, and then a number of short stories in the field guides, such as the one about Barley's past. Even the main series has some of these moments.

Back Story: Explored a lot with different characters. There's The Rise of Scourge, the "prequel" Super Editions, many novellas, and then a number of short stories in the field guides, such as the one about Barley's past. Even the main series has some of these moments.

Whitestorm gets a special mention in that he is one of the oldest active warriors and his age is mentioned multiple times, but he's still a powerful fighter and is popular with all of ThunderClan. That is, of course, before he is killed.

Several characters such as Firestar and Graystripe become grandpas eventually, but they're still strong fighters.

Even retired elders can still usually put up a decent fight if worse comes to worst.

One young cat's spine is broken when a tree falls and she's pinned by the branches. Jayfeather, the medicine cat, tries to encourage her by telling her how ShadowClan once had a cat with a similar injury and had told him about their experiences. Unfortunately, ShadowClan's warrior had ended up dying because of complications with it, which doesn't encourage Jayfeather's patient much.

In Dawn of the Clans, when a cat's about to have kits, Gray Wing asks Reed (a cat who's helping with the birth) if he's helped at a kitting before. He said that he has, Gray Wing asked what happened, and he says that the kits lived but the queen died. Gray Wing's worried for a moment, but Reed explains that the queen he'd helped was already sick, while this one is healthy.

Bad People Abuse Animals: There is an old Twoleg living near SkyClan who is cruel to his pets. In Firestar's Quest, Petal and her kits have to be rescued from him, and in SkyClan's Destiny, the perpetually nervous Shrewtooth reveals that he is so jumpy because he used to be owned by the same man. SkyClan attacks the man to try to teach him not to mistreat any more of his pets.

Balance Between Good and Evil: Part of Rock's shtick is that there must be a balance between light and darkness, because without one the other would not exist.

Bandage Wince: A lot of characters tend to wince when herbs are applied - even if moments ago they claimed they're fine and don't need any.

Band of Brothers: The main characters of The New Prophecy become true friends over the course of their journey, sharing a bond beyond that of Clan boundaries.

Brokenstar. Since his mother, Yellowfang, is a medicine cat who is not allowed to have kits, he is considered illegitimate. His father, Raggedstar (who is also the leader of ShadowClan), and his mother have to pretend that he is an orphaned kit, so as not to arouse suspicion. He murders his father to become leader.

Hawkfrost too. He's the son of Tigerstar and loner Sasha, is a huge Jerkass, pinning down Sorreltail, getting Stormfur and Brook exiled, attempting to take over the Clans (and after his death, destroy them by manipulating living cats), and kicking Beetlewhisker's corpse come to mind. It's quite obvious his father doesn't give a damn about him, but we're never told to feel sorry for him.

Bathroom Break-Out: In The Darkest Hour, Darkstripe is being watched by Brackenfur since he's suspected of being a traitor. He tells Brackenfur he needs to make dirt, so he goes behind a bush for privacy and sneaks off.

In Bluestar's Prophecy, the battle between ThunderClan and WindClan takes place in rain.

The battle between ThunderClan and ShadowClan at the end of Into The Wild also happens during a storm.

Bears Are Bad News: In the Adventure Game campaign Mission of Mercy, the cats protect a young girl who gets attacked by a bear. Notable for being the only time bears appear in the series.

Beast Fable: Into the Wild is analyzed as such in the Nikolajeva book Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers.

...The book is an example of (ab)using cats as a disguise for human beings, since the feline appearance is not inherent to the plot. It certainly adds excitement and not least novelty to the well-trodden narrative, appealing to cat lovers and adventure lovers equally.

Bluestar gets hit pretty hard by this trope as well: allow a bloodthirsty, needlessly violent cat to become leader and destroy your Clan... or abandon your newborn kits in order to become leader yourself and prevent that tragedy?

Jayfeather has to become a medicine cat for this exact reason.

Because You Can Cope: Millie did this to two of her children when the third broke her back. One of the deciding factors in bringing Blossomfall to the Dark Forest.

Because You Were Nice to Me: In the graphic novel Shattered Peace, Minty stops her mate from killing Ravenpaw because Ravenpaw was nice to her kits.

Becoming the Mask: Scourge was a product of this: When he was little, he was tricked into running away from his home and happened to end up in the city. To survive, he managed to fool the other rogues residing there into believing that he was a cold-blooded killer so they would fear him and bring him free food. However, by the time he actually kills someone, he slowly starts to become the unfeeling, cold-blooded monster he was portrayed as in his debut.

Bee Afraid: A scene in SkyClan's Destiny features Frecklepaw being the victim of a bee attack.

Belated Backstory: Yellowfang doesn't have her backstory explained until the second book, and her characterization changes to reflect it afterward.

Don't try to say Tigerheart is in the Dark Forest in front of Dovewing.

Don't break the warrior code when Hollyleaf is around.

Don't suggest to Crookedstar that he is like Rainflower.

And for the love of StarClan, PLEASE don't tell a Clan cat that they sharpen their claws on bones and eat kittypets! (Although they do take advantage of the myth occasionally, just to watch the freakout.)

Betrayal by Inaction: In the second novel, Fireheart's suspicions about Tigerclaw being a traitor are confirmed when, during a battle, Fireheart is pinned down by Leopardfur, who is trying to kill him. He calls to Tigerclaw for help, but Tigerclaw ignores him and just stands there watching it happen.

Better Living Through Evil: Tigerclaw promises that any cats that come with him will be well rewarded later on; despite this, nobody follows him into exile.

Betty and Veronica: There are several of these. Cats tend to prefer Veronicas if they're in love triangles. Bluestar prefers Oakheart over Thrushpelt, Storm prefers Clear Sky over Gray Wing, and Dovewing prefers Tigerheart to Bumblestripe.

Big Bad: Tigerstar is generally considered the main antagonist of the series, but the arcs and some individual books have their own main villain.

The Original Series: Tigerstar

Into The Wild has Brokenstar by virtue of his leadership of ShadowClan and attempt to rule the forest.

Fire and Ice, Forest of Secrets, and Rising Storm split the role between Tigerstar, Brokenstar, and Nightstar, each of whom are major enemies of ThunderClan.

A Dangerous Path sets up Tigerstar as the true villain, but has the dog pack as the main antagonists.

The Darkest Hour has Tigerstar again, until Scourge kills him and takes over the campaign to rule the forest.

The New Prophecy: Appears to be Hawkfrost, but it's actually Tigerstar, albeit with Hawkfrost as his chief enforcer.

Moonrise: Sharptooth, the mountain lion terrorizing the Tribe.

Starlight: Mudclaw, due to his rebellion against Onewhisker.

Power of Three: Sol, the traveling cat who turns the Clans against each other.

Outcast: Stripes, the leader of the Tribe Invaders.

Eclipse: Other than the main villain of the arc, we have Onestar, who turns on ThunderClan and tries to destroy them.

Long Shadows: Ashfur, who becomes a major enemy of Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf during his insane crusade to destroy Squirrelflight.

Sunrise: Hollyleaf, who is the murderer the Clans are trying to find.

Omen of the Stars: Either Tigerstar or Brokenstar, depending on who actually leads the Dark Forest.

The Fourth Apprentice: The beavers, whose dam is draining the lake and causing the Clans to struggle with thirst and starvation.

The Forgotten Warrior: Sol, back for one more attempt to destroy the Clans.

The BloodClan battle in The Darkest Hour. BloodClan, a huge group of city cats (enough to take on around 100 forest cats) with a leader who can kill a Clan leader's nine lives in one blow, gives the forest Clans three days to either leave the forest or meet them in battle. The forest Clans spend the three days weighing their options, training, having medicine cats prepare herbs, and coming up with an escape strategy for the defenseless kits and elders if they fail. All four Clans join together to face BloodClan, and the battle itself lasts about a day.

That's nothing compared to what happens in the fourth series' last book. Basically, the cat versions of Heaven and Hell start fighting an epic war on Earth, and dozens of cats both living and dead kick ass. That one book alone has more Crowning Moments Of Awesome to its name than any preceding it.

In The Rise of Scourge, Tiny, the runt of his litter, is teased by his sister Ruby and brother Socks.

In Thunder Rising, as soon as Clear Sky sees Jagged Peak (who he'd driven out for breaking a leg), he drops the niceness and politeness he showed Gray Wing and acts ugly towards Jagged Peak, taunting him and accusing him of being lazy and selfish. Gray Wing stands up for Jagged Peak, and Clear Sky begins to apologize only to be rejected by Jagged Peak, calling him out for making him leave the forest just because of a broken leg. He gets better toward the end of the series, however. In fact, he even apologizes to Jagged Peak for kicking him out of the forest.

Every Clan is so inbred at this point that every Clan-born character is related to everyone else. It isn't uncommon for someone to have an affair with their cousin, or even sibling. One character even went out with her half-uncle for a while.

At best, they're suspicious of each other, at worst, they're constantly trying to kill each other... yeah.

Sandpaw's first appearance. She snarls that Firepaw smells revolting, and then makes a comment about how he's a kittypet.

Foxheart and Lizardstripe of Shadowclan. The former is constantly rude and mocking towards Yellowfang while the latter occasionally joins the former as well as being cross with having to be a queen and mistreating Brokenkit.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Hawkfrost fits this trope to a T. Brambleclaw can't believe at first that his half-brother may be evil.

Bit Part Badguys: Duke, a villain from The Lost Warrior,, is one of these. His only reason for existing was so that Graystripe could fight someone in the first book, and out of all the villains in the series, he is one of the quickest to go down.

Hollyleaf starts out with her absolute trust in the Warrior Code, and believes that all who follow it are good, while those who don't are evil. After using the code to justify most of her actions, she learns that her very birth broke the code, and that someone she had respected had broken one of the code's core principles, but for a good reason. After learning this, Hollyleaf's mind was completely shattered, and she realized that her morality was flawed, leading her to attempt to murder her own mother, then flee from the Clans.

The series in general is at first an example of Greyand Gray Morality with ThunderClan and ShadowClan each having their good warriors (Firestar, Graystripe, and Yellowfang come to mind) and their bad warriors (Brokenstar, Tigerstar, and Darkstripe) but in the fourth series... Black-and-White Morality is in effect as the Clans go against The Dark Forest cats who are indeed evil. Also in effect during the fight with BloodClan who are (with few exceptions) very black.

Blasphemous Boast: In The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar claims that he is more powerful than StarClan because he changed the number of Clans in the forest from four to two.

Blessed with Suck: The Three's powers all have their downsides. Lionblaze can't be harmed in battle, but he also suffers from bloody nightmares of him murdering others. Jayfeather can see into other cats' dreams and memories, but this causes him to learn things he shouldn't (which he constantly has StarClan cats nagging him about), and he is also blind in life. Dovewing has super-strong senses, which leaves her sometimes distracted, and it also makes her sister very jealous of her.

Blind Seer: Jayfeather. He's blind, but he's very perceptive and his power gives him the ability to gain a huge amount of knowledge that he wouldn't otherwise have.

Hawkfrost coughs up clots of blood shortly before he dies at the end of Sunset.

Tigerstar at the end of the Rise of Scourge manga.

Non-fatal example: At one point in Forest of Secrets, Graystripe has blood bubbling from his mouth.

After he is hit by a car, blood trickles out of Whitethroat's mouth as he tries to speak.

In Moonrise a doomed Tribe cat has blood coming out of its mouth after being slammed against a wall.

Snowfur, when she's hit by a car.

In the short story The Clans Decide, blood comes out of an injured she-cat's mouth as she tries to speak. She gets better, but she is near death at this point.

In Night Whispers, Jayfeather has a vision in which he sees blood spilling from the mouths of every cat in ThunderClan except Ivypool.

Blood Is Squicker in Water: Hawkfrost's death: he stumbles into the lake bleeding from stab wound in his throat, fulfilling the prophecy Blood will spill blood and the lake will run red. To a lesser extent, Ashfur's death, since his body was dumped in a stream after his throat was slashed.

Blood is never referenced in regards to prey, aside from one instance in Midnight where it mentions that Brambleclaw knows the taste of salt because he'd sometimes taste it in the blood of prey. The cats never get blood on themselves while hunting or eating, which is odd considering how bloody some battles get.

In the Tigerstar and Sasha manga, those squirrels and frogs and hares they kill look quite clean. The illustrator, Don Hudson, even had a scene where the editors thought that even a clean dead rabbit looked too creepy.

I am working on the Cat book for Tokyopop and I am at an interesting point in the story. The story involves Feral cats and life in the wild. A Feral cat stops and kills a wild hare as described in the script. I drew the layout and it was approved, but at a certain point, the powers that be wanted a change. The dead rabbit looks too creepy. I understand that the pre-teen market may not be into dead rabbits, but why write it into the script? They wanted me to change the angle to obscure the hare, messing up the storytelling. My compromise was to turn the rabbit around, and closing his eyes. It's not dead, just sleeping! No trauma, just a sleepy, knocked out bunny. (Comparison of original and revised sketches◊)

Lionblaze. Although most of the times he ends up splattered with blood, he's responsible, the times in Long Shadows when Tigerstar shows him visions of himself killing Heathertail in a series of violent fashions may count.

Generally averted with everyone else.

Jayfeather's vision of blood spilling from the mouths of every ThunderClan cat.

Firestar: Has it been worth it, Tigerstar? All the hate? All the death? Tigerstar: Every moment.

Bolt of Divine Retribution: This conveniently happens to Mudclaw, a minor villain. StarClan may or may not have been behind that one, as they have a strict rule of non-interference in the physical plane. It was, in any case, an extremely convenient lightning strike for the Clans: not only was Mudclaw killed, but the lightning felled a tree which created a very handy bridge to a nearby island.

When Omen of the Stars was still intended to be the ending of the main Warriors series, the series began with Firestar entering the forest for the first time and ended with Firestar's death. Kate Cary was also the one to write Into the Wild and also the one to write The Last Hope, so she felt that was fitting and was very pleased to have been the one chosen to write it.

The last lines of The Last Hope are this in the best way possible.

There will be three cats, kin of your kin, with the power of the stars in their paws. They will find a fourth, and the battle between light and dark will be won. A new leader will rise from the shadows of his death, and the Clans will survive beyond the memories of his memories. That is how it has always been, and how it always will be.

Boomerang Bigot: In The Power of Three, Berrynose complains that the ThunderClan leader Firestar is letting too many kittypets (house cats) into his Clan and tainting the blood of the Clan. Another cat immediately points out that Berrynose himself was a kittypet that Firestar let into the Clan, only for Berrynose to try to claim that it's different.

Boring Return Journey: The trip back from the beavers, and also the portion of the sun-drown-place journey from the Tribe back to the Clans (which was described in one paragraph).

In the first book, Fireheart accidentally attacks his friend Graystripe. When Graystripe complains that he was taken by surprise, Fireheart replies, "Surprise is the warrior's greatest weapon." He then mentally notes this to be the catchphrase of Graystripe's mentor, Lionheart.

Breaking the Bonds: In the first book, Longtail doesn't want Rusty to join the Clan because he was owned by humans, and the two fight. There's a moment during the battle where Longtail grabs the back of Rusty's collar and begins using it to strangle him. Rusty struggles forward until his collar snaps, and the Clan leader stops the fight, saying that it's a sign that Rusty is meant to join the Clan.

Breakout Character: Crookedstar, who stars in his own Super Edition. In the Ultimate Leader Election in late 2008, it was he who made it far enough to go up against Firestar at the end. He lost, which is understandable considering that Firestar's the main character that introduced us to the series, but Vicky said in the next Authortracker that even though she expected Firestar to win, she was surprised that out of all the leaders in the running, Crookedstar would be the one to make it so far. Perhaps this is why she decided to have a Super Edition from his point of view. Not bad for a minor character that died in book 5.

Ashfur first appeared as a timid but determined apprentice that soon had his mother brutally murdered by Tigerstar, lost the cat he thought would be his mate (Squirrelflight) to the son of Tigerstar (Brambleclaw), and then had to mentor their "son". Finally, in Book 5 of series 3, he goes insane, attempts to murder the main characters, has his throat bitten, thus killing him, while his body gets pushed off a cliff into a river, where his lifeless corpse gets snagged on a rock and be seen bobbing limply in the water by the rest of the Clan. Ouch.

Scourge was a curious, adorable little kitten. He wandered into the forest and was attacked by Tigerpaw. This made him hate Clan cats. It didn't help that his siblings drove him away.

Brightheart was a sweet, eager apprentice. When Bluestar made Cloudtail a warrior but refused to promote any of the other apprentices, she and Swiftpaw went to look for the dogs, which resulted in the latter's death, and with Brightheart losing half her face (including an eye and an ear) in the attack. Bluestar then renamed her "Lostface", a name that the young she-cat had to carry with her for months. Even after Cloudtail continued to love her and remained her constant rock, she still avoided puddles so that she wouldn't see her face, and constantly had to deal with cats being afraid of her because of her appearance.

Hollyleaf. A strong young apprentice who wanted to follow the warrior code do the best she could for her Clan and also was one of the Three with a special power... or so she thought. She later learned that Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw weren't her real parents and that she was the product of a doubly-forbidden relationship: her very existence shattered the beliefs she'd held so long about the warrior code. She then murdered a Clanmate before deciding to run away from the Clan, nearly dying in the ensuing tunnel collapse, and then lived a lonely life outside the Clan for several years. Also, she was never one of the Three.

Briarlight gets this in perhaps the most literal fashion possible: her spine is broken in an accident, leaving her paralyzed for life, feeling worthless due to not being able to continue any normal career in the Clan and relying on the others to survive, and being treated differently by her Clanmates.

Break the Haughty: Lionblaze started out arrogant and battle obsessed, and trained under his grandfather Tigerstar to become a great warrior. Then in at the end of the Power of Three arc, he learned that he was actually a bastard, and Tigerstar was just using him for his power. He still remained somewhat arrogant, until Night Whispers, where his love interest Cinderheart left him because he had to focus on his destiny and couldn't be distracted, leading to him becoming much more humble and less battle-hungry.

Brick Joke: In the beginning of The Fourth Apprentice, Jayfeather says that if Mousefur starts acting sweet and kind, he'll know the drought has gotten to her. At the end of the book, this happens to Blackstar!

There are many examples where cats - often apprentices - are sent to fetch patrols for help in battles.

In Fire and Ice, a WindClan cat runs to ThunderClan to bring them back to help, since the other two Clans are trying to drive them out again or kill them.

In Dawn of the Clans: The First Battle, Clear Sky and his cats trap Thunder, Gray Wing, Tall Shadow, and Jackdaw's Cry on top of the Great Rock at the Four Trees. Thunder manages to escape, and has to get back to the Moor Group so that he can bring cats back to save the other three. This involves a harrowing Chase Scene.

In the first book, Into the Wild, the main character Fireheart puts Tigerclaw/Tigerstar on a pedestal. Then he finds out that Tigerclaw is a team-killing psycho, and they become arch enemies.

Similarly, Dustpelt in Forest of Secrets turns his back on Tigerclaw after learning that he's a traitor.

Dustpelt: I looked up to you. I wanted to be like you. But Redtail was my mentor. I owe him more than any cat. And you killed him. You killed him and betrayed the Clan. I'd rather die than follow you.

In the Tigerstar and Sasha manga Spin-Off, Sasha is in love with Tigerstar until she finds out about his evil actions.

In the Omen of the Stars arc, all of the Dark Forest apprentices except Breezepelt and Redwillow eventually have this when they realize how evil the Dark Forest is.

Jagged Peak from Dawn Of The Clans used to look up to Clear Sky, his older brother, until the latter kicks him out of the forest for having an unhealed broken leg. The pedestal crumbles to dust when Clear Sky starts bullying him in front of Gray Wing, causing Gray Wing to defend their brother and Jagged Peak to call him out on his behavior.

Leafpool and Crowfeather are this; as is Crowfeather's first relationship with Feathertail. Crowfeather is prickly and warms up to few others, while Feathertail and Leafpool are friendly and gentle - Leafpool is even a medicine cat.

Jayfeather and Half Moon are worth a mention, even though they have limited interaction in the books, since they don't even live in the same time. Jayfeather's grumpy and sarcastic; Half Moon is friendly and cheerful and later becomes the first Tribe-Healer of the Tribe of Rushing Water.

Brother-Sister Incest: Unintentionally. The authors said that Willowpelt and Patchpelt are Graystripe's parents. In Bluestar's Prophecy, the two end up being brother and sister - the authors didn't realize that, because they're born in different litters several seasons apart. When it was pointed out, they just decided to leave it because it can happen with cats.

Brutal Honesty: Wind Runner from Warrior Cats: Dawn Of The Clans does this for Bumble. While the other cats are wondering whether Bumble should join them or not, Wind Runner bluntly tells her that she can't because she doesn't know the ways of a wild cat.

Buffoonish Tomcat: Both averted and used... male Clan cats are more normal, but male kittypets tend to be a lot more goofy and friendly. The latter is probably because male kittypets are not really "male", as discussed in the books.

Buffy Speak: The Ultimate Guide's first official description claimed that the book had an "oversized, gift-y trim".

Hollyleaf is buried by a collapsing tunnel in Sunrise, though she is later revealed to have survived in The Forgotten Warrior.

Tallstar's Revenge mentions, though never shows, the death of Leafshine in a collapsing tunnel, and later Sandgorse is killed in a collapsing tunnel while trying to save Sparrow.

Bury Your Disabled: Snowkit gets killed in Dangerous Path because his deafness prevents him from noticing the hawk until it's too late.

Bus Crash: Happens several times after timeskips; for instance in The Sight we learn that Rainwhisker was killed in between books by a falling branch.

But Now I Must Go: Several characters leave the Clans, most notably Cody, Shortwhisker, and Snookthorn.

By the Lights of Their Eyes: In Shattered Peace, Ravenpaw and Barley go underground into the Moonstone cave. All that is visible is their silhouettes in the tunnel and their eyes glowing white.

Cabin Fever: In The Lost Warrior, Graystripe gets this, since he's lived outdoors in the forest his whole life and is now shut in a house as a pet. Results in him desperately searching for a way out and clawing up some of the furniture.

Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost, with the older Brambleclaw being the good half-brother who kills his evil kin.

In The Darkest Hour Firestar kills Scourge who is his half-brother, though this fact is only hinted at in the text and confirmed by the authors.

According to Word Of God, Graystripe's parents are Willowpelt and Patchpelt, and Darkstripe's parents are Willowpelt and Tawnyspots, so this makes another pair when Graystripe kills Darkstripe.

Clawface and Nightstar. One was the leader of ShadowClan, and one was an evil rogue opposing ShadowClan, although they don't fight each other directly and weren't stated to be siblings at the time Into the Wild came out.

Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The cats have their own vocabulary: "monsters" for vehicles, "Thunderpath" for roads, "Twolegs"/"housefolk"/"Upwalkers" for humans (depending on where the cat's from) and "Twolegplace" for towns, "kittypet" for a cat owned by humans, "The Cutter" for veterinarians, and "sun-drown-place" for the ocean.

Also in The Last Hope, Tigerstar's "The Dark Forest is endless" line is a call back to Night Whispers.

Call Forward: In the InterquelFirestar's Quest, Firestar wonders if there is another afterlife for evil cats, and if Brambleclaw will ever go there. The Dark Forest, which is exactly that, was previously revealed in The New Prophecy, which Firestar's Quest precedes. And Brambleclaw trains there.

Calling Parents by Their Name: It's usually only young kits that might call their parent "Mama" or something to that effect. It's most common for characters to call their parents by their actual name, so it stands out and really emphasizes the family bond when they don't call them by their name. For instance, in Dawn, when a tree falls on Firestar, Squirrelpaw first cries his name, and then yowls "Father!".

Canon Discontinuity: Secrets of the Clans was the earliest guidebook; however, in the years following its release, several other books had come out, contradicting some of the things it said. When asked whether it or Yellowfang's Secret was correct about one such instance, Vicky Holmesstated: "I'm afraid Secrets of the Clans is a bit of an anomaly, in that it strayed off the path of rightness in several areas. Please take the Super Editions, and other Special Editions, as canon!"

Can't Have Sex, Ever: Medicine cats are forbidden from having kits, so they aren't allowed to have mates. That's not to say nobody breaks the rule, but for the most part they adhere to Clan standards.

Can't Kill You, Still Need You: In The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar decides to spare Featherpaw and Stormpaw because he thinks they may still be useful to him.

Career-Ending Injury: Happens several times. For the most part, the cat is already considerably old when it happens:

Stonepelt retires early due to a shoulder injury that didn't heal properly.

Longtail also retires early when he goes blind from infected scratched eyes.

The most notable example in the series, though, is Cinderpelt, whose hind leg was permanently damaged when she was hit by a car when she was only an apprentice. She dreamed of being a warrior, but decided to serve her Clan as a medicine cat after it became clear her leg would never heal.

Another major example is Briarlight, whose spine was broken when a tree fell on her just before she was about to receive her warrior name. Though she survived, her paralyzed hindlegs made her unable to fight or even move around much, so she just helped out around the camp, especially in the medicine cat's den.

Career Versus Man: Male deputies and leaders are allowed to have a mate and kits, but female leaders aren't because it might get too in the way of their responsibility of the Clan. Leafstar even thinks about how unfair this is, and by the end of the book she decides to follow the "The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code" rule and declare that SkyClan female leaders are allowed to have kits.

Car Fu: There's a scene where the main character is trying to cross a road when a car suddenly drives off the road and heads straight at him, That's right - they swerved off a presumably 55 MPH road, drove on the grass, and leaned out of their window, jeering, just to hit a cat.

Cast Herd: The series starts off book one with ThunderClan, WindClan, ShadowClan, RiverClan, StarClan and the Twolegplace kittypets. The story has since grown to include the normal Clans at different time periods, SkyClan, BloodClan, The Dark Forest, The Tribe of Rushing Water, The Tribe of Endless Hunting, The Ancients, the cats that founded the Clans, and many, many side groups such as Daisy's barn, Jingo's group, the traveling rogues, the mountain rogues, Stick and Dodge's groups, and Darktail's rogues. Now to take a breath.

Cat Concerto: Thunder Rising contains a bonus story at the back that shows how one character came to the forest. It begins with Ripple and all the other cats of the park yowling together to greet the morning.

Cats Are Magic: When cats die, they go to StarClan, where they can enter living cats' dreams, influence real-world events by creating omens, and even enter the physical world from time to time.

Cats Are Mean: Played straight, subverted, averted... since the vast majority of the cast is feline, it's only natural that this trope both shows up and gets turned on its head.

Cats Are Snarkers: Again, since the cast is nearly entirely feline, there are plenty of examples of this. Yellowfang is one notable example.

Cats Have Nine Lives: The Clan leaders are gifted with nine lives by StarClan. The first eight times they die they enter a trance for a few minutes and are healed by StarClan, though there are rare instances of injuries that can take multiple lives, like Tigerstar when he got his stomach torn open. There are also a rare few cases of new leaders only getting eight or less lives when meeting StarClan: Sunstar of ThunderClan and Nightstar of ShadowClan because the previous leader was still alive, and Windstar of WindClan because she was dying when she arrived at the Moonstone.

The "bratty, showy, and aristocratic" part of the Siamese stereotype is played straight in Firestar's Quest. When trying to recruit cats to join the new SkyClan, he encounters two Siamese females who are disdainful of the idea of living wild.

White: Most white cats tend to be good, with the exception of Snowtuft, a Dark Forest cat, in the fourth series. Whitewing in particular tends to be gentle and kind. Whitestorm is one of the earliest stereotypical The Mentor characters. The Warriors series does make note of the fact that white cats with blue eyes often tend to be deaf; one character comments that one of her first litter was, and Fireheart is thankful that his nephew is not.

Red/Orange/Ginger: For the "heroic and humble" type, there's the main character of the first series, Fireheart/Firestar, who is named for his bright orange fur. There's also his grandson, Lionblaze, one of the protagonists of the third and forth series. For the "spirited" type, Firestar's mate, Sandstorm, is known for her sharp tongue and temper. Their daughter, Squirrelflight, who also has a sharp tongue (and is especially wisecracking as an apprentice), is explicitly compared to fire, and her warrior name reflects her flighty nature. A character named Red in the Super Edition SkyClan's Destiny is also a fiercely independent young female.

Black/Dark-colored: If there's a villain, chances are it's a dark brown tabby male - Brokenstar, Tigerstar, Hawkfrost, Dodge (even a few other characters such as Thistleclaw were mistakenly referred to as dark brown once or twice) - and it wasn't until fans pointed out just how many of them there were that the authors added a female tortoiseshell villain. Other villainous dark-colored cats include Scourge (black) and Darkstripe (dark gray with black stripes). Some examples of stubborn black cats include Tall Shadow and her brother Moon Shadow from the prequel series.

Black and white: There's not too many standouts with this fur color, so this apparently fits the "Average Joe" part of the stereotype. Tallstar (at least as seen in the main series, not his Super Edition) is an example of an even-tempered character.

Tabby: A large percentage of the cast is tabby. The most common stereotype is the "aloof/snarky" one, with Jayfeather, Longtail, and Speckletail being some examples.

Tortoiseshell: The spunky but kind stereotype tends to come up most; notably, Sorreltail. Most tortoiseshells are female, but two males do appear: Redtail and Sol.

The shaded/chinchilla and colorpoint/lynxpoint fur patterns do not appear commonly, if at all.

Cat Up a Tree: In Dark River, Mousewhisker gets caught in a tree while chasing a squirrel and is too scared to come down. So Cinderheart has to go up there to get him down... and ends up breaking her leg in the process.

Cessation of Existence: When a StarClan or Dark Forest cat is completely forgotten by living cats, they gradually fade away into nothing. However, if either recieves an injury that, in life, would be fatal, they just disappear instantly.

The Chains of Commanding: It ain't always easy to be a Clan leader. Onestar in particular is noted in Cats of the Clans to have been forced to give up his long friendship with Firestar in order to focus on his Clan. And all in all, it's just a stressful job, with the lives of all of your Clanmates relying on you.

Changing of the Guard: The first series started off with Firestar as the main character. He was then replaced by Brambleclaw, his former apprentice, in Warrior Cats: The New Prophecy. In Power of Three, Brambleclaw turns into a background character like Firestar, and is replaced by his adopted children Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf. Omen of the Stars has Ivypool and Dovewing, two younger cats, as its main focus, with the Power of Three characters still in tow. And then in A Vision of Shadows, Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight's kit Alderpaw is the main focus, with Ivypool and Dovewing as background characters.

Character Focus: Starting in The New Prophecy, the character focus tends to shift in each book.

"Character Name and the Noun" Phrase: The Super Editions and novellas are a possessive version; for instance Firestar's Quest, Bluestar's Prophecy, Hollyleaf's Story, Mistystar's Omen.

Chaste Hero: Firestar in the first arc. He doesn't get it until Cinderpelt directly points out to him in book 5 that Sandstorm loves him. He also never realizes that Cinderpelt herself has feelings for him. In the words of Vicky, "Stupid man-cat."

Chekhov's Boomerang: The fox trap from Sunset. First, Berrykit loses half his tail in it. Then later, it turns out to be instrumental to the villain's plot, and to beating the villain.

Clawface, one of Graystripe's idols who is mentioned early in Into the Wild, kills Spottedleaf in the book's climax.

In Into the Wild, there is a casual mention of a litter of kits that Bluestar lost one leaf-bare. Forest of Secrets reveals that two of her kits are still alive and living in RiverClan. They then become very important to the plot.

Barley, who turns out to be an ex BloodClan member in The Darkest Hour.

In Bluestar's Prophecy, Tigerpaw brutally attacks a kit on Thistleclaw's command. That kit turns out to be Scourge, a cat who later kills Tigerstar.

Used in Twilight. Near the beginning of the book, the ThunderClan cats have to drive a badger and her cubs off their territory. Fast-forward to the climax, and the cats are facing a massive ambush by the badgers that leaves many cats wounded and Sootfur and Cinderpelt dead.

Harry, a random cat hanging around in SkyClan and the Stranger turns out to be Sol, the villain of the Power of Three arc.

Thistleclaw was mentioned in Forest of Secrets and said to be Bluestar's rival. He's very important in Bluestar's Prophecy and even revealed to have been a major contributor to Scourge's Face–Heel Turn. He's also later revealed as a leader of the Dark Forest, meaning that he was manipulating events in the forest and lake for a long time.

Chew Toy: Percy in SkyClan's Destiny. Most of Stick's group gets away with just wallowing in Dodge's incredibly vague Offstage Villainy, but Percy is singled out for both having his eye ripped out and getting fixed. In fact, he doesn't have any role in the story other than having horrible things happen to him.

Chickification: Poppyfrost from is initially portrayed in The Power Of Three as a fearless warrior. By the next series, she's an anxious wreck who stays in the nursery taking care of her kits and fretting over them.

Chick Magnet: Berrynose manages to attract several she-cats, much to the surprise of other cats.

Child Hater: Lizardstripe appears to not like having any kits, showing dismay at Hollyflower for missing her kits at one point. She even directly says to Raggedstar and Yellowfang that she wished that she hadn't had her own kits.

Children Are Innocent: Most kits are portrayed as innocent, energetic young cats who contrast with the hardened, shell-shocked, and weary warriors. Even Tigerstar (basically cat Hitler) was adorable and innocent as a kit. It's only when the kits start training to become warriors that they lose their innocence. Subverted with Brokenstar in Yellowfang's Secret and Shrewclaw in Tallstar's Revenge. You can see the seeds of Brokenstar's evil right from his kithood, and Shrewkit is a bully who picks on Tallkit and calls him a worm.

A Child Shall Lead Them: In Sign of the Moon, Jayfeather realizes that Half Moon, who isn't yet considered a sharpclaw (an adult cat, to the Ancients), is the rightful cat to lead the Ancients and transform them into the Tribe of Rushing Water, due to her wisdom and her ability to read supernatural signs. The Sun Trail shows that Half Moon is still leader into her old age, and is considered great and wise.

Child Soldiers: One of the laws in the warrior code is that kits must be six moons old (the feline equivalent of about age 10) to begin training, and they don't see battle until they're more experienced. This rule stemmed from too many kits being trained at too young an age; it took their mothers refusing to fight in a battle to make the Clan leaders see sense. This law has been broken once during the books: Brokenstar trained ShadowClan kits to fight when they were barely weaned from their mothers, and as a result many of the Clan's kits died in battle.

Chocolate Baby: Two of the three kits in Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw's later-revealed-to-be-adopted litter. Jayfeather is a small gray tabby. There's no gray fur in this cat's supposed father's line, but there sure is in the real father's, not to mention the WindClan scrawniness. And Hollyleaf is black, again probably inherited from the father, who is very very dark grey.

The Chosen One: Or four, or three... StarClan isn't very picky about the number of cats they choose to do things.

Circle of Shame: In one of the Graystripe mangas, Graystripe has a nightmare that StarClan cats are surrounding him and screaming that it's all his fault that bad things happened to ThunderClan.

City Mouse: Pretty much every kittypet (cat owned by humans). Most of them seem surprised that wild cats have to hunt for their food, and can't imagine doing it themselves (in fact, some of them find the idea of hunting to be messy and disgusting) or sleeping anywhere but a warm bed.

C-List Fodder: Minor characters get slaughtered left and right. Some characters like Rosetail and Whiteclaw in the Original Series exist only to die. Others, like Talonpaw and Sootfur from The New Prophecy do nothing for a whole arc, then bite the dust near the end of it.

Clueless Chick Magnet: Firestar didn't know Sandstorm and Cinderpelt were in love with him until the latter tells him about the former.

Code of Honour: The Warrior Code. It's eventually deconstructed in the Power of Three arc when Hollyleaf, who had used the code to determine morality, realizes that the code is imperfect and goes on a murderous rampage. Then it gets reconstructed in SkyClan's Destiny and The Forgotten Warrior, when the characters realize that the code is a guideline that can be changed, and also when Hollyleaf uses it to atone.

Cold Snap: Usually 1-2 books in each story arc take place in winter, and oddly enough they seem to have the biggest events happen in them. The fact that it's winter becomes plot-relevant as well, as winter makes it more difficult for the Clans to hunt and usually causes an outbreak of sickness, and the weather occasionally causes events to occur (such as a cat falling through the ice - which leads to a death once and a forbidden romance another time - or the thaw causing floods).

Colon Cancer: Every single book from the second series onward. Each book has the initial title Warriors, and two subtitles to indicate which specific series it belongs to, and the title of the book itself (for example: Warriors: The New Prophecy #3: Dawn, Warriors: Power of Three #2: Dark River, and Warriors: Omen of the Stars #1: The Fourth Apprentice).

Colourful Theme Naming: The first part of cats' names come from things a forest cat would know, such as plants, animals, and natural objects. They also use a lot of colors — every basic color except purple and pink. They even use some more unusual colors, such as "golden", "silver", "copper", "russet", "tawny", "amber", and "fallow". Oddly enough, out of over 1000 characters, "white" is the most common prefix of all, and even "fallow" got used about five times, but "brown" only got used once, and the cat in question disappeared from the cast list before recieving his warrior name.

In Crookedstar's Promise, one of the battles for Sunningrocks is decided like this.

In Hawkwing's Journey, Hawkwing offers to fight Dodge when Dodge takes Curlypaw hostage and insists SkyClan must help him drive out Stick's group: if Hawkwing loses, SkyClan will do as Dodge says, while if Hawkwing wins then SkyClan goes free.

Combat Medic: The few medicine cats who were warriors before they became medicine cats are basically this. Regular medicine cats also get basic training in fighting skills, even though they usually don't end up using them much.

Comic-Book Adaptation: The manga, of a sort. The stand-alone volumes all tell stores the regular books don't. Played straight in Bluestar's Prophecy: the manga in the end of that book shows a scene that originally appeared in the books: Rusty joining ThunderClan.

Community-Threatening Construction: In the second series, a new road is being built through the forest. The loss of territory and starvation after the prey leaves forces the four Clans to leave the forest.

Companion Cube: Jayfeather and his stick. To the point where he always looks for the stick when he needs answers, and was horrified when he almost lost it in the lake.

Compelling Voice: Sol seems to able to persuade anyone to do anything. The books constantly remind us of how powerful and unnatural his voice sounds, and most converstations with him seem like a struggle not to fall under his influence.

Confession Cam: Secrets of the Clans has a variant of this: there are brief sections called "_____ Speaks", and the characters talk about their feelings during a major event that occured in the main series, their motivation for doing something, and things like that.

Conflicting Loyalty: Warrior Code forbids taking mate from another clan to protect against it. Also a frequent accusation against half-Clan cats. And then there's the fairly common occurrence of a cat's loyalty being split between what they think is right and what the Warrior Code or their leader is telling them.

At first, battles were a lot more common and weren't treated nearly as seriously as they are in later books - for instance, it's not particularly considered out of the ordinary that Raggedstar was allegedly killed by an enemy patrol. In later stories, a border skirmish is a big deal and cause for concern about Clan wars, where in the early books it was the standard response to finding a trespasser: fight first, ask questions later. ShadowClan driving WindClan out in the first book was taken seriously, but if that happened in later books it would have been an instant Moral Event Horizon rather than the other Clans just raising a slight protest over the aggressiveness of the action.

A more minor example: The first book states that each apprentice must visit the Moonstone before becoming a warrior: they travel there with the leader when he or she decides to speak with StarClan. While we don't actually see it happen for the rest of the first series, it still gets mentioned occasionally. It's totally forgotten in the second series, and after it was pointed out by fans, the authors later lampshaded it by having Leafpool say "We seem to have left that tradition behind in our old home." In the prequel Super Editions that take place before the first series, they do have the "each apprentice must visit the Moonstone" requirement again, but oddly enough it's the apprentices themselves, rather than the leader, that receives the visions from their ancestors at the Moonstone.

Continuity Nod: In Sunset, Firestar says to Brambleclaw, "Remember when I had to go away for a while, when you were a new warrior?", and talks about how Graystripe said he'd wait for Firestar to return, as a reference to Firestar's Quest. Interestingly, Sunset came out over half a year before the release of Firestar's Quest, so it referenced a scene that fans didn't know about yet.

Definitely present in Bluestar's Prophecy. Scenes from later books replicated in full with detailed explanations of what was going on, lots of cameos of Field Guide characters, and backstories for all the major villains of the first arc. As well, the book did it's best to give backstories to almost all the characters in the main group. This was kind of difficult. It even gave a large role to a character who was only mentioned once in the entire series and didn't get on the cast list in that book (Rosetail).

Though the entirety of Omen of the Stars has it, The Last Hope especially. Not only does it include appearances by many cats from the earlier series and the Expanded Universe, but after Firestar's death, all nine of the cats who gave him nine lives appear to take him to StarClan, with their gifts they gave repeated.

In The Fourth Apprentice, Yellowfang witnesses Breezepelt and Brokenstar attacking Jayfeather and tells him that the Dark Forest is rising. In Fading Echoes, a book written by a different author, Jayfeather tells her about the attack and the uprising within the Dark Forest and she is shocked and apparently doesn't know anything about what he's talking about. Ummm...

In Secrets of the Clans, Raggedstar is the leader when his son, Brokenstar, is born. However, in Bluestar's Prophecy and Yellowfang's Secret, he is deputy. (Although in the scene in Yellowfang's Secret where she gives Brokenkit to Lizardstripe, there's a few accidental mentions of his leader name; the scene appears to have been copy-pasted from Secrets of the Clans and edited.)

Another notable one is in the short story "The Elders' Concern", from the official Warriors app. The story is about how the elders are discussing how they're not happy with Fireheart as deputy, because he's young and not Clanborn and was named after moonhigh... except in this story, he's named deputy immediately after Lionheart; it takes place the day after Lionheart's death. Also, they're unhappy that Tigerclaw wasn't chosen, because he's the best fighter. Uh, Fireheart was an apprentice when Lionheart died. And how could they forget about Tigerclaw becoming deputy after Lionheart and his subsequent attempts to kill Bluestar in order to become leader?

Firestar's nine lives is probably the most major one. He first lost a life in The Darkest Hour to Scourge, and then Dawn to the falling tree; at the beginning of Sunset, it said he had seven lives left, and then at the end after he's caught in the fox trap and is noted to be lying motionless, it says he has six left. Then Firestar's Quest came out - which takes place after The Darkest Hour and before Dawn - which said that he had six lives left, and then he lost one to rats in the book. When asked why it said six, Vicky said that he lost one to Scourge, one to the rats in the book (even though the line was before it occurred), and one helping Ravenpaw (the Ravenpaw manga was not released until years later, and when it was released, it took place after Firestar's Quest and he didn't lose a life in it), so that didn't clear up matters at all and just caused confusion; the "six" line is generally assumed to be an error. Vicky also said that he didn't lose one in the fox trap (and the short story "After Sunset: The Right Choice?" would later support this), despite Sunset itself claiming he had. He lost one in Long Shadows to greencough, and one just before The Fourth Apprentice to a fox. In Fading Echoes, Yellowfang says that five of Firestar's lives are in StarClan, leaving him with four remaining. If you count all the lives we actually saw him lose in the books minus the fox-trap one - Scourge, rats, tree, greencough, fox - this is correct. He lost a life at the end of Fading Echoes to Russetfur, evidently leaving him with three left. And then he lost a life - his final life - in The Last Hope to wounds from the Dark Forest battle. The only way that this count is accurate is if you count the fox trap (which one book said did happen, and Word of God and one short story said it didn't), and the supposed "Ravenpaw" one which didn't actually happen in the manga nor was referenced whatsoever in the books, or perhaps you can just headcanon that his wounds in The Last Hope were bad enough to take more than one life. No matter which book directly references his life count, it's always incorrect each time.

Convenient Cranny: This happens many times, when they are chased by dogs or other predators, such as badgers: cats will hide in places such as under a thick bush, or in a rabbit hole, or in a crevice between rocks, where the larger creature cannot reach them.

In the first series, Tigerclaw plots to kill Bluestar in order to become leader himself by inviting some rogues to attack the camp and passing off her death as part of the battle. Fireheart jumps in and rescues her during the attempt.

Successfully done in the first series by ShadowClan elders, with some help from ThunderClan. They depose the evil Brokenstar and Nightstar takes over.

In the second series, Tallstar, in his dying breaths, names Onewhisker as his successor instead of Mudclaw. As the only cats who witnessed this are Onewhisker himself and two of his friends, Mudclaw doesn't believe Onewhisker should be leader, and leads a rebellion against him before the younger cat can receive his nine leader's lives. ThunderClan helps out Onewhisker and he wins.

Also in the second series, Tigerstar and Hawkfrost come up with a plan for Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost to kill the Clan leaders at a Gathering and forcibly take control of all the Clans. Brambleclaw disagrees with it, and it is never attempted.

Courier: Apprentices play this role during the battle against the Dark Forest cats - traveling through a battle-filled forest where any enemy will kill them on sight so that the Clans can send messages to each other on the status of their warriors.

The Tribe rolls in mud to cover their fur in order to disguise their scent and blend into the rock better so that prey doesn't spot them so easily. It also supposedly insulates them better. The visiting Clan cats try this, and aren't too thrilled at the idea, but it works.

In Dark River, when Hollyleaf is stuck with RiverClan, she has to roll in mud so that if she encounters a WindClan patrol, they won't realize she's a ThunderClan cat.

Covered with Scars: Tigerstar has a pelt covered in scars. He even has a scarred nose and an ear nearly split in two.

There was a positive variation in the first book, Into the Wild. Rusty decided to visit the forest neighbouring his home, only to get attacked by Graypaw. However, after they crashed into each other, they stopped fighting and became fast friends.

In the Omen of the Stars arc, Ivypool crashes into the villainous Mapleshade (due to Mapleshade's near-invisibility) during their first meeting. Mapleshade does not respond well to this, but she later becomes an Evil Mentor to Ivypool.

Happens in the Dawn of the Clans arc. Gray Wing is running freely and happily on the moor he recently arrived on, only to crash into Wind and Gorse, the future founders of WindClan, and ruin their hunt. They get off to a bad start, but later they do become pals.

Crazy Jealous Guy: Ashfur, who was willing to murder four cats (one of whom was his own apprentice) to hurt Squirrelflight — who had rejected him the year before.

Creepy Souvenir: Members of BloodClan collect teeth from cats and dogs they have killed, wearing them as Spikes of Villainy on their collars. (This started when Scourge, as a young cat, attempted to use a loose dog tooth he found to try getting his collar off, only to get the tooth stuck. When others asked about the tooth, he claimed he killed a dog and took the tooth as a trophy, and from there the idea took off and became true.)

Crisis Crossover: The Last Hope is as close as you can get to a self-contained Crisis Crossover, with loads of screentime for all past and present protagonists, the final battles with all the past villains, and cameos by nearly every ThunderClan cat from the first arc.

In the Power of Three, Sol begins to convince Blackstar that StarClan has abandoned them and that leaving the forest was a bad idea, to the point that Blackstar rejects his leader name and refuses to visit the Moonpool or bring his Clan to Gatherings. Lionpaw, Jaypaw, and Hollypaw fake a sign from StarClan, which turns into a real one when Runningnose and Raggedstar appear.

In Hawkwing's Journey, SkyClan begins to lose faith in StarClan as they endure hardship after hardship and their Clanmates die, disappear, or leave one by one.

Cross Player: A variant. ShadowClan are defeated by ThunderClan in a major battle at the end of the novel Fading Echoes. In the next novel, Night Whispers, the ShadowClan cats decide to roleplay the battle and figure out tactics they can use to counter ThunderClan the next time they fight. Oakfur, a tomcat, is chosen to act as the ThunderClan she-cat Hazeltail for ShadowClan's roleplay.

Forest of Secrets also ends with the sun rising as Fireheart races back to the Clan, gradually growing more eager to face his new life as Clan deputy.

Cultural Posturing: Most cats believe that their own Clan can do no wrong, and that the other Clans are all weaklings or heartless bastards. This often works in ThunderClan's favour, since the majority of the series is from their POV, but the series does occasionally show that the other Clans are Not So Different. For example, the same is done with RiverClan when they become the protagonists in Crookedstar's Promise.

Cultural Translation: The old forest map was based on an actual forest in England, meaning the first series was set in England, which is also somewhat reflected by some of the wildlife. However, the second series featured a mountain lion, which cannot be found in the UK, and had a change of location, the new setting being entirely invented for the books.

Culture Clash: The Clans and the Tribe are rather similar, but there's enough difference in them that they can clash at times - especially when the Clan cats insist that the Tribe try to live like them in order to drive off intruders.

Scourge manages to kill Tigerstar, one of the forest's most feared warriors, with a single blow.

Pretty much every fight Lionblaze participates in. With his powers granting him ultra-quick reflexes and extraordinary strength, he often fights multiple warriors without getting hit a single time.

Hollyleaf's battle against Sol is extremely one sided, with Hollyleaf demonstrating her practiced battle techniques while Sol attempts to defend himself by flailing randomly, ultimately proving that he is not a warrior.

Cute Kitten: They manage to even make Tigerstar and Scourge look adorable when they're written/drawn as kittens.

Cuteness Proximity: At the end of Crookedstar's Promise, the jerkassegomaniac Beetlenose comes flying out of the Nursery, squeeing about how cute Crookedstar's daughter Silverkit is. Keep in mind that he's a very nasty cat, and even he found her cute.

Cynicism Catalyst: Talltail fantasizes about (and almost goes through with) killing Sparrow as he believes Sparrow was the cause of his father's death.

Tropes D-M

Damage Control: A forest fire burns through ThunderClan's territory in Rising Storm. In addition to killing several cats and driving out all the prey, the camp itself was destroyed. They have to try and rebuild it with whatever little they have left to work with, and try to get back to a normal lifestyle, before the other Clans take advantage of their vulnerability.

Dark and Troubled Past: Many major characters, such as Bluestar (had a prophecy about her, mother and sister died untimely deaths, had to fake her kits' death and give them up to another Clan in order to become leader), Crookedstar (rejected and abused by his mother, trained with the Dark Forest, lost his mate), Yellowfang (spent her life feeling other cats' pain and had to become a medicine cat, later had a kit with the Clan leader and had to give him up)...

Dark Chick: Mapleshade, the only major female villain, who is also very active in the Dark Forest. And Ivypool, to some extent, since she trained there too.

Darkest Hour: The aptly-namedThe Darkest Hour, as well as various other points throughout the series, like Dawn, or the later books in Omen of the Stars.

Dark Horse Victory: The whole first arc was focused on the rivalry between Firestar and Tigerstar. Then, when the final book of the arc, The Darkest Hour, reached their final showdown, Tigerstar revealed that he had an ally named Scourge, who proceeded to kill both Tigerstar and Firestar. Fortunately, Firestar came back from the dead with eight lives remaining, or else Scourge would have ruled the whole forest.

Dark Is Evil: Not only do the bad cats stay in the extremely unsubtle Dark Forest after they die, but most of the major villains are dark brown, dark gray, or black (Tigerstar, Brokenstar, Thistleclaw, Hawkfrost, and Breezepelt, to name a few).

Averted with Sol and Mapleshade, who are both tortoiseshell.

Subverted with Hollyleaf, who suffered from a Sanity Slippage but ultimately ended up on the side of good.

Dark Secret: Many cats' forbidden relationships, and the parentage of kits born to said forbidden relationships. Visiting the Dark Forest.

A Day in the Limelight: Several minor and supporting characters get to star in their own spinoff books or parts of main-series books.

The manga trilogies (or standalone in Scourge's case) each feature a character: Graystripe (Graystripe's Adventure), Scourge (The Rise of Scourge), Sasha (Tigerstar and Sasha), Ravenpaw (Ravenpaw's Path), and Leafstar (SkyClan and the Stranger).

The e-books each feature a character as well. The ones that don't have a POV in the main series are Mistystar (Mistystar's Omen), Cloudstar (Cloudstar's Journey), Mapleshade (Mapleshade's Vengeance), Tigerstar (Tigerclaw's Fury), Goosefeather (Goosefeather's Curse), and Ravenpaw (Ravenpaw's Farewell), Pinestar (Pinestar's Choice), and Spottedleaf (Spottedleaf's Heart).

Some main-series books have minor characters as a point-of-view character for that book alone:

Half of Moonrise was told by Feathertail and Stormfur, who haven't been narrators since.

Night Whispers gave the ShadowClan medicine cat Flametail a handful of chapters, while also having a plot that focused heavily on ShadowClan.

Dawn of an Era: In Bramblestar's Storm, Bramblestar adds a new rule to the warrior code: in times of trouble, Clan cats must forget their rivalries and help each other. When the danger passes, then they can split apart again. This is triumphant concerning that for twenty-four books, the Clans had been learning to work together.

Daydream Believer: Though not as common now that the fanbase has grown older, there used to be quite a few who claimed to genuinely believe in StarClan, the warrior afterlife, even though the author said she made it up.

The Day of Reckoning: The coming of BloodClan in The Darkest Hour, and the Dark Forest invasion in The Last Hope.

Deader Than Dead: Once a StarClan cat or Dark Forest cat is forgotten and fades away over time, or is "killed" by a wound that would have been fatal in life, they never come back. Examples include Spottedleaf, Antpelt, Brokenstar, Hawkfrost, and Tigerstar.

One of Sorreltail's litter in Twilight. The camp is attacked by badgers, which are trying to get into the nursery as she is kitting. Cinderpelt dies protecting her and the kits. When telling Leafpool her picks for names, a gray kit is named in her honor as Cinderkit. It turns out she IS Cinderpelt reincarnated as her niece so she could Set Right What Once Went Wrong in her life and be a warrior.

Another example occurs in the next generation. Out of that same litter that included Cinderkit, Molekit died. Cinderkit and Molekit's littermate Poppyfrost ends up naming her son after her dead brother.

Lionblaze and Cinderheart's kits Fernsong, Sorrelstripe, and Hollytuft were all named after cats who died in the Dark Forest battle. (Ferncloud, Sorreltail, and Hollyleaf). Ferncloud was a queen who had nursed their father when he was a kit, Sorreltail was their grandmother, and Hollyleaf was their aunt and their mother's best friend.

Deadly Graduation: The trainees of the Dark Forest are forced to fight to the death as their final assessment.

Deadly Training Area: The Dark Forest. Unlike in real life, they train with claws unsheathed, and unlike in normal dreams, wounds sustained in the Dark Forest become real and physical: training can very easily result in a fatal injury. It's Training from Hell, both figuratively and literally, since the Dark Forest is feline Hell.

An elder, Graypool, is flustered when Tigerstar snarls in her face, so she takes a step backward, only to lose her footing on the steep riverbank and hit her head on a rock.

During a battle, a dog accidentally runs into Rainflower; she falls and hits her head on a rock. This one's a little more realistic in that she doesn't die instantly; her son debates whether to first fetch the medicine cat or drive away the dog. He chooses to fight off the dog first, and in that amount of time, she dies, and he feels responsible for her death.

Death by Looking Up: Happens to mountain lion Sharptooth when Feathertail knocks a stalactite off the ceiling of the cave.

Death Faked for You: Firepaw realizes that Tigerclaw is trying to kill Ravenpaw for witnessing something he shouldn't have. To protect his friend, he sends Ravenpaw to live far away on a farm at the distant edge of Clan territory, and returns to the camp telling everyone that Ravenpaw was killed by an enemy patrol.

Death Glare: In After the Flood, Leafstar proves herself very capable of giving death glares. One of them is enough to make her mate drop the prey he's carrying.

Bright Stream from The Sun Trail got a short story about her death, written from her point of view.

Death Is Cheap: When Clan cats die, they move on to StarClan most of the time, which is basically heaven for cats. If they were evil, then they're trapped in the Dark Forest. Regardless of which place cats end up in, they can still interact with some Clan cats, particularly medicine cats. They can even injure cats who dream-walk into their domain. Death became so cheap that by the fourth series, the Hunters had to invent a second death so that cats could be killed Deader Than Dead.

Hawkfrost gets a wooden stake driven into his throat by his brother and yanked out. He stands right back up as he's gushing blood, and then falls into the lake, causing the nearby water to turn red from his blood.

Tigerstar was noted by other cats as knowing the Warrior Code by heart. He really was planning to kill his leader and take over ThunderClan, something that, obviously, is against the code.

Brokenstar did the same but succeeded, with the added bonus of the cat he killed and usurped being his own father.

Deceptive Legacy: In Tigerstar and Sasha, Sasha gets pregnant with Tigerstar's kits before she realizes that he's a power-crazy murderer bent on ruling the entire forest. She raises her kits on her own, only telling them stories about how their father Tigerstar was strong and brave and that he'd be proud of them. A while after Tigerstar's death, Sasha takes the kits to RiverClan. Imagine the kits' shock when they see young RiverClan cats pretending to be the evil Tigerstar and reenacting his death.

Deconstructed Character Archetype: Stormfur is a deconstruction of Mighty Whitey. He's a cat from the main group in the series who gets discovered by the Tribe of Rushing Water, a group with strange customs, and finds out that he's The Chosen One destined to save them, and even gets to date a native she-cat, and eventually chooses to stay with the Tribe. Plus he gets to train the tribe cats in his fighting skills to later save them from some rogues who they're utterly helpless against without him. But not only is he not really The Chosen One, but his strategy only ends up failing and leading to the deaths of many Tribe cats rather than saving the Tribe like he believed it would, and once he finally gets to come back and make up for everything by saving them for real, he and the other cats realize that, however they want to defend the Tribe, they don't want to force their culture on them or constantly be their rescuers.

Defiant to the End: Stonefur, who, when given a chance to kill Featherpaw and Stormpaw to prove his loyalty, tells Tigerstar that he'll die before he kills them. Tigerstar obliges by ordering Darkstripe to kill him. Even though Stonefur has been starved for an extended period of time and is weak, he manages to have the upper paw for a while until Tigerstar sends in Blackfoot to help and finish Stonefur off.

Demoted to Dragon: Brokenstar was the Big Bad of Into the Wild, the first book of the Warrior Cats series. Then he gets driven out of his clan and killed, leaving Tigerstar in control of Brokenstar's rogue army. Later in the Omen Of The Stars arc, Tigerstar and Brokenstar meet up in the afterlife and Tigerstar becomes Brokenstar's dragon.

Demoted to Extra: The major characters in each series become less important as the focus shifts to the younger generation. One example is that fans were trying to figure out whether Graystripe, The Hero's best friend and therefore a major character in the first series, even got mentioned once in Sign of the Moon.

Denied Food as Punishment: If a cat is assigned to hunt and eats his catch rather than sharing it with the kits and elders of the Clan first, he can't take anything off the fresh-kill pile for supper.

Depending on the Artist: In the manga, since all the art styles are radically different, seeing cats appear in two different styles is quite jarring. This especially applies to Bluestar and Tigerstar.

Depth Perplexion: In the online Hunting Game, enemies could travel through tree stumps that you couldn't get past without jumping over them.

The Determinator: Tigerstar. And how. He will do absolutely anything to rule (kill the Clan deputy in an attempt to become deputy himself, attempt to kill his leader multiple times - including trying to trick her into running onto the Thunderpath and conspiring with rogues to make it look like a rogue killed her - in order to become leader himself, become leader of another Clan, try to join all the Clans together, and bring in the bloodthirsty BloodClan in order to make the other Clans do what he wants). And then later he tries to get revenge on the Clans from beyond the grave, first by visiting his children in their dreams and trying to make them take over their Clans, and then by organizing the Dark Forest's armies and visiting even cats not related to him in order to get them on his side and ultimately declare all-out war on the living Clans.

Deus Angst Machina: Leafpool. In Twilight, her mentor dies (and she blames herself for her death), she has to give up the love of her life, and she essentially becomes isolated from the rest of the Clan. She seems to have been able suck it up, but then in Sunrise it is revealed that she was actually pregnant and had to give up her kits to be raised by her sister, she can no longer be a medicine cat (the only joy in life she had left), she gets insulted by the aforementioned love of her life, her own daughter tries to kill her, and she apparently blames herself for Ashfur's death. All this isn't really a Contrived Coincidence though, since it all just originates from one bad decision... and another bad decision to cover up the first one...

Diabolus ex Nihilo: The sudden appearance of Scourge in The Darkest Hour. Tigerstar had nine lives at the beginning of the book. In order to avoid making him seem like a pathetic weakling, the authors had a random cat called Scourge show up, instakill all of Tigerstar's nine lives, kill the protagonist Firestar, and try to take over the Clans.

Did Not Get the Girl: Ashfur did not get Squirrelflight, Thrushpelt did not get Bluestar, and several notable genderbent examples include Cinderpelt and Firestar, Spottedleaf and Firestar, Mapleshade and Appledusk, Feathertail and Crowfeather, and Leopardstar and Tigerstar.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In SkyClan's Destiny, SkyClan takes it upon themselves to defeat the Twoleg who keeps abusing cats. Also averted when, in the same book, the cats save a Twoleg kit with a broken leg.

Disability Superpower: Jayfeather is born blind, but learns he has the ability to read minds. As well, he can creep into dreams, in which he gains perfect vision.

Disabled Snarker: Jayfeather. "Oh great. Let's lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!"

Brokenstar is built up as the Big Bad in Into the Wild, but by the book's end it is apparent that Tigerclaw/star will be the true villain. Then in The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar is killed by Scourge, who usurps the position of primary villain.

In The New Prophecy, Hawkfrost seems to be the villain, but he turns out to only be the Dragon-in-Chief to Tigerstar's lingering spirit.

In the first book, there was a ThunderClan cat named Rosetail who was killed defending the nursery; she was not listed in the Allegiances or otherwise mentioned in the book. It became a well-known error, and in a book that came out five years later, a character comments, "There was an elder named Rosetail who died back when I was nursing Swiftkit..."

Similarly, in the first series, apprentices would always travel to the Moonstone before becoming a warrior. Fans pointed out that the characters haven't been doing it in recent books, even though the Clans had found a replacement for the Moonstone in their new home. Leafpool comments in a scene, "We seem to have left that tradition behind when we came to our new home."

A pair of ShadowClan warriors fall over the top of the quarry to their deaths in Starlight.

Ancient cat Dark Whiskers is killed this way when blown off a cliff during a storm.

Disposing of a Body: Hollyleaf attempts to dispose of Ashfur's body by tossing it in a stream, hoping he'll be swept into the lake, the Clan would think he just mysteriously vanished, and that would be the end of it. Things don't exactly go as planned.

Dissonant Serenity: Sol stays calm and composed all the time, even when surrounded by enemies and accused of murder. He is so calm, other cats often find it unsettling. The only times he's lost his cool is whenever he's making a speech (and he's really more "incensed" than "angry"), and when Hollyleaf apparently pushes his Berserk Button, and even then he recovers in less than half a second.

"What are you doing here?" Hollyleaf demanded. She could feel every hair on her pelt bristling, her tail fluffing out to twice it's size, and her belly churning with distrust of this powerful cat. "I thought you'd gone."

Fury flashed in [Sol's] eyes, and his claws dug into the ground. Yet a hearbeat later he was cool and controlled again, so that Hollyleaf almost believed she had imagined the anger he had betrayed.

Distant Finale: Bluestar's Prophecy ends many years after the main story of the book, with Bluestar making a decision which causes the events of the first book.

Distant Prologue: Several books have prologues which take place long before the main story.

The most notable ones are Firestar's Quest and SkyClan's Destiny, which take place several generations before the story begins, long enough that SkyClan - the Clan featured in the prologues - has been forgotten by the modern Clans.

Also notable is Dark River, which takes place at least twice as early as those: before the Clans were formed, and before even the Tribe of Rushing Water was formed.

Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: In the books, the cats are active mainly in the daylight. Word of God states that it is to prevent most of the scenes from happening in the dark. Real life cats can be active anytime of the day or night and cannot see in complete darkness, needing at least some light in order to see (which is usually provided by the moon).

Divided for Publication: The Graystripe manga trilogy was originally meant to be a single volume as long as a normal manga. Then someone decided that it should be released on the same day as the first book in a new series, but the illustrator wasn't done with it, so they decided to split it into three shorter volumes. Every manga afterward has followed suit.

Divided We Fall: In Dovewing's Silence, Bramblestar says this phrase after the distrust towards the Dark Forest trainees goes too far. That involved getting them to attack an injured fox, which prompts Bramblestar to tell everyone that the time of mistrust must end.

Dogged Nice Guy: Thrushpelt spends most of Bluestar's Prophecy complimenting and helping Bluestar, but to his chagrin, she is not really interested in him like that. He remains her friend to the end, and when he realizes that the father of her kits isn't in the picture, he offers to step in, in order to help her avoid any awkward questions.

Dogs Are Dumb: The most intelligent dogs shown in the entire series had a vocabulary of about eight words, the two most frequently used being "pack" and "kill". (Although it's later noted that dogs and cats speak different languages, so presumably most dogs have a larger vocabulary in their own language.)

It's also worth noting that the dogs mentioned above are defeated by being tricked into running off a cliff.

One dog in Sunrise was even stupid enough to stick his head through a fence and right into the claws of a bunch of cats with a grudge.

Firestar let out a long breath. "I don't know, Bramblepaw," he admitted. "I just don't know."

"Down Here!" Shot: In the novella Mistystar's Omen, Mistystar is about to receive her ninth leader's life. She looks around and doesn't see anyone, and is confused because she knows she has one more life to get yet. She hears a squeak, looks down, and sees that the ninth cat is her son who died as a young kit.

Dragon-in-Chief: Hawkfrost in The New Prophecy. Tigerstar, the Big Bad is just as strong and fearsome, but he's hindered by his being dead.

Dragon Their Feet: Tigerstar, the Big Bad, becomes Brokenstar's dragon in the Dark Forest. However, since Tigerstar is eternally the true Big Bad, in The Last Hope, he shows up after Brokenstar's death as the final villain.

Dramatic Irony: Jayfeather is unable to understand why Leafpool and Crowfeather act so weird around each other, but any reader who has read the second series would know that what he is detecting is pure Unresolved Sexual Tension, and they also would probably have guessed that the two are his real parents.

Dramatic Necklace Removal: Happens to Firestar early on. He was a kittypet who wore a collar with a bell on it, and several ThunderClan cats disagreed with him joining the Clan due to all the trouble the collar would cause. His collar gets torn off in a fight with Longtail, causing Bluestar to declare it a divine sign that Firestar is meant to join the Clan, and Firestar to win the respect of the Clan as well has lose his ties to being a pet cat.

Dramatis Personae: Each book has an "Allegiances" section at the beginning, listing all characters that appear in that book and many that don't.

Jaypaw just wants to be a great warrior, and won't listen when other cats tell him that he can't because of his blindness. He does get the chance to train as a warrior apprentice, but when a patrol he's on gets into a fight and he's easily beaten by an enemy apprentice because he can't make sense of what's going on, he has to come to terms with the fact that he'll never be a warrior. He ends up becoming a medicine cat instead.

Snowkit is born deaf. His mother refuses to accept that he won't be able to become a warrior, and even tries training him herself. Then Snowkit gets carried off by a hawk because he couldn't hear it coming or hear other cats warning him.

Dream Intro: Several books start out with dreams. Many of them involve the characters receiving a prophecy/warning from StarClan or speaking to other dead cats. At least involves Gray Wing talking to another living, dreaming cat over a great distance, and there are also several "ordinary" dreams/nightmares as well.

Dream Spying: Jayfeather has the ability to walk in dreams, so he uses this to walk in other cats' dreams, mainly that of the other medicine cats when they speak with their deceased ancestors. Leafpool tries to make him do this once to figure out where his sister is when, as an apprentice, Hollyleaf goes missing.

Dream Walker: Jayfeather has the ability to enter other cats' dreams, as do the members of StarClan and the Dark Forest.

Driving Question: The "Three" arc of Warrior Cats (Power of Three and Omen of the Stars) has many questions. "Where did the three come from?" "What is their purpose?" "Who is the fourth?"

Dr. Jerk: Jayfeather, who even at one point proclaims, "I'm a medicine cat. If you want sympathy, go to the nursery." He never gives up on a patient however, and legitimately cares for his Clan, making him more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Hollyleaf's "death". Instead of dying in a battle, she was crushed as the underground tunnel collapsed. (Turns out she escaped the worst of the collapse and managed to survive with some injuries, and she eventually dies in a battle for real.)

Rainwhisker, who was killed by a falling tree branch. In between books.

Dub Name Change: Firestar's kittypet name is Rusty in English, but it is "Sammy" in the German version. Most of the other names, which are composed of actual words, are translated directly to German, e.g. Redtail to Rotstreife or Tigerclaw to Tigerkralle.

Due to the Dead: A vigil is held overnight for the family and friends of a fallen warrior to say their last goodbyes, and in the morning, the Clan elders bury the body. There have been occasions where enemy warriors have been returned to their own Clans for their Clan to mourn them, and at least one occasion where a rogue was killed, and it was decided that a couple of young warriors would bury the body, no elders need be present.

Dying as Yourself: Bluestar has a stage lasting a couple books where she develops some dementia, being confused and extremely paranoid: she is convinced that their ancestors have abandoned them and that all her Clan are traitors; she does not even trust Fireheart. Right toward the end of her life, she realizes she's been wrong, and performs a Heroic Sacrifice saving Fireheart from the dog pack. She has just enough time to reconcile herself with her long-lost kits before she dies.

In the third series, Crowfeather is using his "mate" just to get his Clanmates to trust him, and and he emotionally abuses his son (who also has related issues), and is in denial of how much he loves Leafpool and that he had kits with her, Lionblaze goes Ax-Crazy from time-to-time, and is usually horrified by the results, Jayfeather has some serious attitude problems, Hollyleaf is obsessed with the warrior code and eventually goes insane, Ashfur is trying to kill Squirrelflight's family to get revenge, Leafpool, who can't seem to succeed at anything, is incredibly depressed, and a lot of other cats throughout the course of the series become depressed because of the the authors' cruel treatment of their characters.

It continues on into the fourth series, with Dovewing (who just wants to be normal, because she can't handle all of the responsibility that has been thrust on her, and hates the way it has distanced her from her sister), and Ivypool, (who is insanely jealous of her sister and wants to be noticed as much as her, to the point where her feelings of jealousy and loneliness became manipulated by the Big Bad). Then we have Millie and her kits. Millie's daughter, Briarlight, becomes paralyzed from the waist down when a tree falls on her and it keeps her from ever becoming a Warrior, having to live in the medicine den, and her main activity for each day is to drag herself to and from the fresh-kill pile. This causes Millie to become obsessive over her crippled daughter and completely ignore the fact that she has two other kits, which in turn affects Blossomfall (Millie's other daughter) to visit the Dark Forest and learn from Tigerstar because she's feeling unloved and unwanted at home all thanks to Millie. Bumblestripe, Millie's son, takes the developments surprisingly well.

Thistleclaw is mentioned in Forest of Secrets and shows up for a scene in Rise Of Scourge before his real debut in Bluestar's Prophecy.

Tawnyspots and Goosefeather were first mentioned in Forest of Secrets, though the latter not by name. In addition, Sunstar and Featherwhisker were mentioned in Secrets of the Clans before their debuts in Code of the Clans and Bluestar's Prophecy, respectively.

Ear Notch: With large groups of fighting cats, someone's bound to get a ripped ear, and it does happen often. One example is Tigerstar; it's one of his more frequently noted physical characteristics.

Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of The Last Hope, every character has gone to hell and back (sometimes literally), but they still pull through and earn happy endings for themelves and all the Clans. The Clans have survived nearly being taken over by Tigerstar, almost being killed or driven out of the forest by BloodClan, the destruction of the forest by Twolegs and the resulting starvation and journey to the new territories, and the Dark Forest (feline hell)'s attempt at destroying the Clans. Not to mention all the hardships and heartbreak in between.

During the fifth book of Omen of the Stars, Hollyleaf returns to ThunderClan and nobody cares about her crimes, even when they find out that she killed Ashfur.

An unintentional example in the Expanded Universe manga Ravenpaw's Path. During Shattered Peace, Ravenpaw and Barley are chased off the farm they live on by the farmer because he is tricked into thinking they killed his chickens. The farmer says that if he sees them again, he'll shoot them. However, when they come back and defeat the rogues who took over their home in The Heart of a Warrior, the farmer doesn't care, despite still thinking they killed his chickens.

A rather odd example in Tigerclaw's Fury. In the Warriors universe, fleeing from battle until your leader tells you to do so would be considered treachery and cowardice. Fleeing from battle when Tigerclaw is your leader would be considered suicidal. But the cats who abandon him when it looks like he's losing don't get any sort of comeuppance.

Edible Theme Naming: Apparently the Erins were hungry when they wrote the Warrior Cats book SkyClan's Destiny... it introduces cats named Egg, Onion, Nutmeg, and you could even count Velvet if you think of red velvet.

Either/Or Prophecy: StarClan seems to give a lot of these. Take the prophecy "Fire alone can save our Clan", for instance. Note that it does not say that fire will save the Clan. A minor prophecy in the second arc is misinterpreted as well due to this trope.

Election Day Episode: Warriors Ultimate Leader: The Clans Decide. Around the 2008 Presidential election, HarperCollins decided to teach children about voting by creating a subsite where users could vote on their favorite out of several Clan Leader characters, and the winner would have a short story (involving voting) written about them. Ultimately it was Firestar that won; the story was released when Barack Obama took office, and it focused on the Clans deciding to work together to survive a harsh winter and voting on whether Firestar should temporarily lead them all.

Embarrassing Rescue: In Fire and Ice, Fireheart saves Sandpaw from falling into the gorge. Considering that up until this point Sandpaw has done nothing but insult Fireheart and call him useless, it's not surprising that she's angry at him for saving her - and pretends that she didn't need the help.

The night sky tends to cloud over and become stormy at Gatherings when there is arguing. The cats believe that their warrior ancestors are controlling the weather and expressing their displeasure, but one medicine cat does point out that sometimes a storm is just a storm.

Firestar thinks at least once that it seems like the weather fits the mood:

A vast, unnatural silence covered everything. With the rational part of his mind, Fireheart realized that all the prey had been scared away by the rampaging dog pack, but in the grip of his grief it seemed that even the forest was stunned into mourning Bluestar.

Lionblaze starts out as a very strong, yet very normal, warrior. Then in Outcast, he starts developing the powers of invincibility, becoming exceptionally strong.

Becoming a Clan Leader works this way. They start out as normal warriors like everyone else, but when they become a leader, they receive nine lives, the powers of StarClan, and any other gift the authors decide to give them.

Ensemble Cast: Each arc after the first focuses on a group of characters with roughly equal screentime and importance, with each of them getting various turning points and focal segments.

Epiphany Therapy: When Firestar fears that Scourge will crush the Clans, he laments that there were always four Clans in the forest, but Scourge is trying to change that. Then StarClan tell him that there were never four Clans, there were always five. Cue Firestar realizing that StarClan is always with him, and that while he has StarClan's support and the gift of nine lives, Scourge does not.

Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Dark Forest is made up of cats from all four Clans, which are treated like races in the series.

Escaped Animal Rampage: In A Dangerous Path a pack of dogs gets loose from the tree farm that they were being kept in to guard, and they end up living in the forest. While escaped dogs might not be the scariest thing to a human, they were a big threat to the cats living there.

Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Despite being a hammy bad guy, Hawkfrost loves his mother Sasha. In fact, he scolds the ThunderClan cats for chasing her and bids farewell to her when the Clans move.

Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hawkfrost's plan to take over the Clans fails because he literally cannot understand why his brother would rather earn the position of Clan Leader than kill the current leader and take it.

In The Rise of Scourge, Scourge describes feeling an icy cold feeling in his belly when he kills his first cat, and he embraces the cold and lets it fill him.

The power of the Dark Forest freezes over StarClan territory in The Last Hope.

Evil Matriarch: Mapleshade, a villain with an "evil mom" vibe. What drove her to evil was when, after she was exiled from ThunderClan for having a RiverClan mate, her kits drowned in the river when she was trying to bring them to RiverClan. Her mate blamed her for this, and she ends up getting rejected by RiverClan as well.

In the first arc, there's Tigerclaw, who wants to become leader of his Clan. He starts out by killing the current cat who is next in line for leader. When that is over and he's next in line, he plots to kill the current leader. Fortunately this doesn't work out so well, and he's banished. After that, he becomes leader of a different Clan and plots to kill the hero and take over all four Clans.

In the same series there's Scourge. His real motivation is to kill Tigerstar, who once beat the snot out of him. He successfully does this, but after that he decides the forest is a pretty cool place and that he wants to stay; he just has to drive out those pesky Clans first.

In series two, Hawkfrost has a similar plan to his father Tigerstar's. He even has help from his dad's spirit. He manipulates Mudclaw into staging a coup in order to weaken WindClan, and Hawkfrost nearly succeeds in killing the ThunderClan leader Firestar.

In the third series, Sol wants to destroy the clans because SkyClan cast him out. This cat is a master manipulator and tends to play the cats against each other.

One of the most elaborate plans actually stretches across generations of cats. The Dark Forest (where evil cats go when they die) walks in the dreams of many Clan cats, training them in vicious battle moves and fostering their ambition and bloodthirstiness. Like most villains, they want to destroy the Clans as well. They nearly succeed.

In Midnight, after Leafpool sees Squirrelflight leave for her journey, Cinderpelt asks if she knows where Squirrelflight is. Leafpool is able to say no because she didn't know where Squirrelflight was at the exact moment.

The warrior code rule "The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code" was chosen so that cats obey the decisions of their Clan leader - suggested when a leader gave away part of their territory to another Clan, and the deputy protested, undermining his authority in front of the other Clans. This gets used as an excuse for cats to follow their leader into evil deeds, and Leafstar uses it to decide that the forest Clans' rules don't totally fit SkyClan and that she can make her own amendments to the warrior code.

Crookedstar promises to put his Clan above all else. Mapleshade later points out that this means before kits, before family, anything else.

In The Darkest Hour, Firestar thinks that Scourge's much bigger deputy is the leader of BloodClan, as he wasn't expecting such a small cat to be leader. When Tigerstar meets Scourge for the first time, he even blurts out, "That's Scourge? He's no bigger than an apprentice!"

In A Forest Divided, Minnow remarks, "This is Gray Wing? I thought he'd be bigger."

In Sign of the Moon, Ivypool and Blossomfall encounter a mysterious cat in the tunnels. Ivypool can't see any of the cat's features, and is unable to determine its gender. In The Forgotten Warrior, the cat is revealed to be Hollyleaf, alive and well, but reluctant to return to ThunderClan.

The prologue of The Forgotten Warrior features a mysterious cat declaring that they will have their vengeance on the Clans. It's never explicitly stated who this cat is, but it's almost certainly Sol, based on his role in the book.

Extruded Book Product: The authors have admitted that they deliberately wrote the books based on what was likely to sell from the beginning. Some of them don't even like cats!

Faith–Heel Turn: Hollyleaf, after realizing she's the product of a forbidden relationship, loses her faith in the warrior code and murders Ashfur before running away from the Clans.

The Clan cats have a naming system that involves putting two nouns, verbs, or adjectives together. The first part of the names may include stuff from nature such as plants, animals, colors, etc., while the last part of their name includes the part of a cat's body, an action, plants, animals, and much more. (Fireheart, Ivypool, Whitestorm, etc.) The suffix of the name changes throughout their life: with "kit" when they are kittens, "paw" when they begin training, pretty much anything once they're an actual warrior, and "star" if they become a Clan leader. (For example, one character went from Bluekit to Bluepaw to Bluefur to Bluestar).

Tribe cats are named after the first thing their mother sees when they are born, and this results in several-word-long, descriptive names, such as Bird Who Rides The Wind and Brook Where Small Fish Swim. (They just go by the first word of their name for everyday use.)

Both naming schemes began with an early group of cats, who had names like "Moth Flight" and "Gray Wing" and so forth, which are very similar to Clan names. The Tribe's pattern branched off of this when an ancient cat, Stone Song (who was temporarily leader of the ancient group), was named by his mother for the wind that blew over the rocks when he was born.

Fantastic Racism: From many canon characters, but also, some say, from the fans. It's another one of those things they disagree on.

This trope is really present in The Prophecies Begin arc, in which nameless bad guy cats are always, or almost always, toms. The named villains are also overwhelmingly male. Tigerstar and Scourge are the main villains of series one, and both of their chief henchcats, Darkstripe and Bone respectively, are toms as well, as is Brokenstar, the villain of early series one. Blackfoot, who later becomes Blackstar, is at his most villainous in this arc as well.

In The New Prophecy the villain is Hawkfrost, and also Mudclaw, who plots to overtake WindClan. Sharptooth, the cougar who preys on the Tribe, is also male, although not really a character so much as a monster.

The Power of Three has Sol, who wants to destroy the Clans, and Ashfur, who tries to murder three of his clanmates. The closest thing to a female villain in this arc is Hollyleaf, who kills Ashfur. Of the Tribe invaders, half are toms and half she-cats.

In Omen of the Stars, most of the male villains are reused from previous series. Mapleshade is the biggest female villain, and introduced in this series. Also appearing in the Dark Forest is the minor character Sparrowfeather. Ivypool may also qualify, before she realizes that the Dark Forest wants to destroy the Clans.

Dawn of the Clans has Clear Sky and later One-Eye as chief villains, but also the she-cat Star Flower.

Final Battle: The BloodClan battle in the original series. The next three arcs build up the much more deadly war with the Dark Forest. It finally comes in The Last Hope, and takes up a whole quarter of the book.

Fire-Forged Friends: Some of the main characters in The New Prophecy were openly hostile to each other before their journey - Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw didn't get along, and Crowpaw was aggressive to everyone (but particularly Brambleclaw due to a border conflict) - but in the end they become true friends due to everything they've faced together.

First Snow: Happens a couple times. In Fire and Ice, Fireheart is amazed because he hasn't seen it before; he was shut inside as a kit when still living with Twolegs when it last snowed. He quickly learns that snow makes it difficult to move around, however. In The Darkest Hour, Firestar is out with his apprentice Bramblepaw when it begins to snow. Bramblepaw chases the snowflakes gleefully, and Fireheart wonders whether Bramblepaw's evil father Tigerstar ever played with snowflakes.

Flanderization: RiverClan's fish-loving tendencies (no, not like that), as well as the general Love It or Hate It nature of fish as prey. Princess also becomes a far bigger worrywart as the first series progresses.

Cloudtail acts like this around the end of the first series. You'd think that seeing fatal wounds stitch up by themselves and hearing actual, accurate prophecies would be enough for the kid...

There's also Mothwing, who is a medicine cat despite not believing in StarClan, which is essentially the cats' equivalent of an atheist priest. Apparently her explanation for medicine cats knowing things StarClan has told her is that they subconsciously figure it out by themselves and all convince themselves that a dead cat told them it in a dream, which is arguably more ridiculous than what she is trying to explain. It gets even worse in Fading Echoes, where she sees something strange happen to Mistystar while she's receiving her nine lives and manages to figure out that Jayfeather is essentially reading her mind, but she still can't comprehend that StarClan exists.

Another interpretation of what she says/how she acts is that she acknowledges that they probably exist, but refuses to have faith in them or try communicating with them... for some reason.

The reason she doesn't have faith or try communicating is probably because StarClan lie consistently, rarely help them out, and when they do send them a message, tend to do so in obscure, twisted ways when they could easily just tell them straight out.

Flaw Exploitation: Tigerstar and Hawkfrost use cats' flaws to convince them to join the Dark Forest, mainly preying upon cats who just want to prove themselves and feel unnoticed and unliked.

Framing Device: In the field guides Code and Battles of the Clans, the reader is a kittypet who is visiting the Clans and being told stories by the characters.

Freudian Excuse: Pretty much every villain in the series. Tigerstar had a father who abandoned him to become a kittypet, and a mentor who taught him to be violent and evil. Brokenstar was abused by his foster mother, Lizardstripe. Scourge was bullied by his siblings, Ruby and Socks. They told him he would be drowned in the river if he wasn't adopted by Twolegs, so he ran away, only to be attacked almost to death by Tigerstar. Sol had a father who neglected his kits, and a mother who always told them stories about SkyClan cats and was upset with her life. Because she couldn't take care of them, she gave them all to Twolegs. Sol thought that, if he was a SkyClan cat, his mother wouldn't have given him away. Mapleshade was hoping to become ThunderClan leader, but they drove her out after she had kits with a RiverClan tom. She then tried taking her kits to RiverClan, but they drowned on the way. RiverClan rejected her, her mate blamed her for the kits' death, and he took on another mate within his Clan.

Gender Bender: A lot, most of them being one-time typos. Permanent/more major ones include:

Birchstar from Code of the Clans: male in first story, female in second

Foxheart: female in Secrets of the Clans (thought by ShadowClan to be the mother of Brokentail) > male in Bluestar's Prophecy > female in Yellowfang's Secret

Mosskit: originally written as a male in Forest of Secrets and Secrets of the Clans, but later was female in Cats of the Clans and Bluestar's Prophecy (which became Mosskit's official gender), and mentioned as both at different points in The Last Hope.

Mintkit and Sagekit: Mintkit was male and Sagekit was female in the allegiances of Firestar's Quest, but they flipped genders in the actual text. SkyClan's Destiny confirms the allegiances of Firestar's Quest to be correct.

Rowanclaw: female in Dawn > male in Starlight and subsequent books. Fathers Tawnypelt's kits (this was done intentionally by the authors in acknowledgement of this error), and later becomes deputy.

Rippletail: female in Twilight > male in The Sight

Pouncetail: female in The Sight > male in Dark River

Sedgewhisker: female in The Sight > male in Dark River > female in Sunrise

Gorsetail: female in Sunrise (was actually a mother of kits earler in TPOT) > male in The Fourth Apprentice

Rushpaw: male in main OOTS series > female in Battles of the Clans

Generational Saga: The Original Series stars Firestar, while his daughters Squrrelflight and Leafpool take center stage in the second series, his grandchildren Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather become mains in the third, and in the fourth his grand-nieces Ivypool and Dovewing are added as main characters as well.

Grade Skipper: In a manner of speaking. Apprentices usually become warriors in the order they were apprenticed, and an apprenticeship is stated to normally last 6 moons. Fireheart and Graystripe were made warriors before the older Dustpelt and Sandstorm, and if you carefully keep track of every mention of time passing in the book, they were only apprentices for a little over two moons.

G-Rated Sex: Beyond all of the characters that have been born to the various Official Couples throughout the series (one litter being both implied and confirmed by Word of God to be the result of a one-night stand), there was one particularly blatant scene in Bluestar's Prophecy that provoked many thoughts of "how did they get away with this?". Oakheart asks Bluestar to meet him somewhere at night, saying he wants to get to know her better. After a romantic evening, Bluestar starts begging to let herself enjoy "Just one night!". Next thing you know, Oakheart is building them a nest, and the next chapter skips to the next morning. Soon after, Bluestar is pregnant.

Grim Up North: ShadowClan, normally thought to be the most "evil" Clan, lives in the northernmost territory. There's even a saying in ThunderClan that the cold north wind blows over every ShadowClan cat and chills their heart.

Grumpy Old Man: Some elders are portrayed this way, notably Mousefur and Tangle.

Ravenpaw and Barley, although pretty much every Warriors fan that doesn't hate slash (and even some who do) believes that Ravenpaw and Barley are more than Heterosexual Life-Partners. It's also worth noting that the author herself said that she envisions them "like a married couple," and that they are perfectly happy with just each other and don't want any girls to boss them around. This is made even more blatant in Ravenpaw's manga trilogy.

For the most part, the series pretty much averts this. It appears in the books and is used as a medicinal herb to help cats with greencough relax (though Fireheart in the first series remembers it from when he was a kitten and is extremely tempted to bite down on it when carrying some back). The authors have commented that, while they touch upon several serious topics in the series, one that will almost certainly never appear is drugs in any form.

In Moth Flight's Vision, it finally gets played straight. Moth Flight, having never used catmint before and no idea what the proper dose is, guesses and ends up giving Rocky too much. The old cat gets high and plays like a kit, and tries hilariously to find any excuse to get some throughout the rest of the book.

Holy Ground: The Moonstone, and later, Moonpool, are sacred places for the cats to communicate with their ancestors. New leaders are given nine lives there, each new warrior must make the trip there once, and that's where the medicine cats receive omens twice a moon.

The Homeward Journey: Moonrise. The journey to the sea was hard, but the journey home is just as dangerous (In fact, one of them didn't make it back.)

Hot-Blooded: Hollyleaf even pokes fun at this, when she says that Sorreltail is one of the rare cats in ThunderClan who isn't that.

Humans Are Cthulhu: Much of what the Twolegs do is naturally incomprehensible to the cats, and they view Twolegs as one of the greatest threats (especially after their original forest is torn down to make way for a new highway Thunderpath).

I Can't Feel My Legs: Used with Briarpaw when a tree falls on her. She ends up with her hindlegs paralyzed.

Lionblaze, to a lesser extent. He even sympathizes with Dovewing's situation in The Fourth Apprentice.

I Just Want to Be Special: Ivypool, who is extremely jealous of her sister's power and the attention she's getting - to the point that she trains with the Dark Forest, hoping that she'll become good enough to be noticed too.

Incurable Cough of Death: Many cats die of greencough, or, less frequently, whitecough throughout the series. Notable examples include Leopardstar's siblings and mother, and Tigerstar's siblings. Firestar and Bluestar even lose one of their lives this way.

Inertial Impalement: At the climax of Sunset, Brambleclaw is fighting Hawkfrost. He'd just saved Firestar from a fox trap by digging up the stake holding it in the ground, so he picks up the stake in his mouth and swings it around. Hawkfrost lunges at him and impales himself on the spike. Brambleclaw is shocked and gasps "Hawkfrost! I... I didn't want this."

In Beyond the Code, "Why do things like this always happen to me?" First it's Sol's mother, Cinders, in a flashback after her mate leaves her because she complained too often, and Sol was devastated. Later, in the present day, Sol says it himself when he wants to be made a warrior at the Gathering and he thinks Leafstar deliberately tried to embarrass him by refusing for the time being.

And in Tallstar's Revenge, Talltail uses the harsh nickname "Wormcat" against Shrewclaw, the cat who always tormented him with that name.

And in Night Whispers, Flametail snaps at Lionblaze that he was happy he wasn't related to a murderer (referring to when Lionblaze accidentally killed Russetfur.) Yet Flametail himself is related to a murderer: his grandpa Tigerstar.

Island Base: RiverClan's camp in the old forest is located on an island. Also, in Dark River, they are temporarily forced to shelter on the Gathering Island while they deal with Twolegs attacking their camp.

It's Raining Cats: The "Skydrop" move that SkyClan developed and that ThunderClan later uses.

It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: StarClan might tell you you can't have a mate or kits, or maybe the magical powers you have alienate cats around you, maybe you don't get to be a warrior at all, maybe all the cats you love will die, but regardless, it definitely sucks.Great StarClan, does it.

I Wished You Were Dead: Lionblaze to Heathertail at the end of Eclipse. She doesn't actually die, but Lionblaze spends the majority of the rest book being tortured by nightmares about killing her.

Jayfeather. Not the friendliest cat in the world to be around, although that's hardly surprising, considering his father is Crowfeather, but still always does his best to help his Clanmates whenever and however he can.

Crowfeather could also count, but Feathertail and Leafpool are the only ones who have actually seen his good side. It's worth a mention that Crowfeather was a lot more of a pleasant cat before his first love, Feathertail, died.

Dustpelt. He was always portrayed as strict and confrontational, but had great respect for his peers and especially showed his soft side to his mate Ferncloud and their kits.

Cloudtail, to an extent. He was hot-headed and quick to jump into arguments, though he did mellow out a bit when he got older. He always had undying loyalty and a strong sense of what was right despite his prickly exterior.

"Just So" Story: There are stories in Secrets of the Clans that explain how tigers got stripes and how adders came to be.

Kangaroo Court: In The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar holds what he calls a "trial" for his prisoners. It's really nothing but whipping up hatred for the half-Clan cats so that their own Clanmates would mistrust them enough to want them driven out or killed.

Blackstar. He was one of the minions of two different Big Bads, killed a ThunderClan elder while trying to kidnap some kits, and murdered the RiverClan deputy in cold blood in front of the entire Clan. He then goes on to be Clan leader, and Firestar lets him off with what can best be described as a stern warning. None of this is ever mentioned ever again.

Ashfur. After four counts of attempted murder in order to get back at the cat who rejected him, he makes it to StarClan with the excuse of "his only fault was to love too much".

Kick the Dog: There's one cat that The Last Hope really wants you to know is an evil bastard, and it's not Brokenstar or Tigerstar. It's not even Shredtail. It's Hawkfrost. Sure, Brokenstar murdered Beetlewhisker, but Hawkfrost made it personal when he kicked the corpse and smugly mocked Beetlewhisker. Then, he goes on to nearly kill fan-favourite Ivypool, and actually succeeds in killing Hollyleaf, another fan-favourite (admittedly without Ivypool's absurd levels of popularity). Then, he spends the rest of his screentime rubbing it in to Ivypool and Brambleclaw that he killed Hollyleaf. He really has his death coming.

Kid Hero All Grown-Up: The kits and apprentices from the first books are adults in the later series. The third-series kits/apprentices are also young adults in the fourth series.

Kissing Cousins: Seeing as they're cats, and clans that don't allow intermixing, this is kind of inevitable.

Word of God also confirmed one pairing that turned out to be Brother-Sister Incest. It wasn't on purpose because she didn't realize that they had the same parents (they were in different litters, a couple seasons apart), but she decided to just leave it once she found out.

Dovepaw and Ivypaw are born at the ending of Sunrise (the last book in the third series), with Jayfeather realizing that one of them is the third cat in the prophecy. Both of them are main characters in the fourth series.

In the manga at the end of Bramblestar's Storm, it is revealed that Lionblaze and Cinderheart have three kits, and that Squirrelflight is pregnant. Their kits will all appear in the sixth series.

Late-Arrival Spoiler: One noteworthy example would be the way the names "Firestar" and "Tigerstar", both big spoilers for late in the first series, are being thrown around indiscriminately on this very page. Even some of the books' titles contain major spoilers - see Spoiler Title below.

Lawful Stupid: Hollyleaf was turning into this before her disappearance.

In The Sun Trail, Shattered Ice and Jackdaw's Cry figure out tunneling after Gray Wing saves Rainswept Flower from falling into a rabbit hole and guess that it will work because Gray Wing told them about Wind's tunneling technique. By the time of Tallstar's Revenge, the story has been hilariously skewed so that Shattered Ice is an action hero who saves all of WindClan (which hadn't even been formed when tunneling was invented) from starvation by digging a hole in the middle of a blizzard.

The start of the Clans' origin story in Secrets of the Clans even says that stories change and details are lost in the retelling. The book has the story that is told in the modern Clans nowadays, in which the forest settlers fought at Fourtrees, and after Thunder, Wind, River, and Shadow try to lay claim upon leadership, the spirit-cats tell them that they must split into Clans, each of the four leading one. While there was a battle like that at Fourtrees, and the spirit-cats did visit them there and guide them into splitting up, it didn't happen like the story told it, and the cats split apart more gradually over time.

Legion of Doom: The Dark Forest is a villainous group made up of the past enemies of the Clans, and some new ones.

Let the Past Burn: Toward the end of Rising Storm, a dry summer and young humans messing around results in a forest fire, badly burning ThunderClan's territory, including their camp. Three of the Clan are killed in the fire, and while they do return, it takes a long time to recover and rebuild.

Loads and Loads of Characters : Each book features a section at the front which lists all the characters. The most recent books' Allegiances sections have OVER ONE HUNDRED characters listed. (Of course, several of them are background characters, kits, and cats who haven't even made an appearance.) There are over 900 named characters in the whole series.

Long-Running Book Series: 2003-present, still ongoing, with 28 main books, 5 Field Guides, 7 Super Editions, 6 e-book novellas, and 13 manga volumes as of March 2015.

Love Makes You Evil: Ashfur, who attempts to murder the father and kits of the cat who rejected him. When another cat questions how he made it to StarClan after that, Yellowfang's response is "his only fault was to love too much".

Mad Lib Fantasy Title: It would take much less time to list the books that don't apply to this trope. Warriors is full of mystical stuff (such as Bluestar's Prophecy or Mistystar's Omen), metafictional stuff (like Firestar's Quest), and vague time-and-space stuff (Eclipse, Moonrise, etc).

Mad Oracle: Goosefeather was often seen as this, and indeed, many of his prophecies and signs seem rather questionable. The problem is that there are some actual premonitions in there too, so everyone ignores him when he starts getting really bad feelings about Tigerkit's future.

Mama Bear: Queens will do anything to protect their kits. When Firestar is receiving his nine leader's lives, Brindleface gives him a life with the love a mother has for her kits. He expects this life to feel warm and comforting, but is surprised by the ferocity of it.

May–December Romance: Pinestar and Leopardfoot... he's already a leader on (or close to) his last life when she's born.

Meaningful Name: A Clan cat's name is an indicator of their rank in the Clan hierarchy: kits' names end in -kit, apprentices' in -paw, leaders' in -star... the more unique names belong to warriors and medicine cats. Further, many cats have names that reflect some aspect of their appearance: Firestar got his name from his oft-mentioned "flame-colored pelt", and as for Halftail and One-eye... isn't it obvious?

And outside of the Clan naming conventions, there is also Sol, who is named after the Roman god of the sun, which makes sense because he predicts a total solar eclipse. Although, he hasn't done anything sun-related since Eclipse...

Jayfeather and Hollyleaf. Their suffixes are references to their real parents, Leafpool and Crowfeather, and Jayfeather's prefix is a further reference to his father, since jays and crows are different species of bird within the same family. Leafpool also wanted to name Hollyleaf after Crowfeather, but Squirrelflight wanted a say in the kits' names and chose Hollykit for the dark color of holly bark.

Meaningful Rename: Names are changed quite often, usually indicating change of status(promotion to apprentice or warrior), more rarely because of some physical change, e.g. Halftail, One-Eye, Lostface or Crookedkit.

The plot of Dawn is about the cats moving from the doomed forest to the lake.

Long Shadows reveals that the Ancients went through this, as they used to live at the lake but moved to the mountains and became the Tribe of Rushing Water.

In Dawn of the Clans, about half of the ancient Tribe of Rushing Water left the mountains to find a new home in the forest.

Miles Gloriosus: Scourge used to be one, claiming to have killed foxes and ripped teeth out of the mouth of dogs. Then he Took a Level in Badass and was actually able to do the stuff he claimed to be able to do.

SkyClan, who were forced to leave the forest after losing their territory. Eventually, however, they were lost from the memory of the living Clans.

WindClan was this for a time in the first series, after ShadowClan drove them out while under the rule of Brokenstar. RiverClan and ShadowClan are pleased at the extra hunting territory at first, but Bluestar convinces the other leaders that it's wrong and gets them to agree that the Clan should be brought back.

Monster Is a Mommy: The badger and her cubs in Twilight, and the dead fox and its cubs in The Sight.

Crookedstar's head was spinning. "Slow down," he meowed. "Sorry!" Sedgepaw flattened her ears. "I know I talk too much but I just want to be the best apprentice. I'm so glad you're my mentor. You're the strongest cat in RiverClan, except Rippleclaw, but he's old - not an elder or anything - but you're younger and you remember what it's like to be a 'paw. And I'm going to listen to everything you tell me..."

Multiple-Choice Past: Rock. Is he the Guardian of the Tunnels from the Ancients, the first Stoneteller, an immortal cursed to be unable to save the Clans from their fate, a ghost, the Keeper of the Prophecies, the Creator of The Three, or some combination of these things? Not even Word of God can decide.

Most main characters will end up appearing with StarClan (or in Tigerstar and Hawkfrost's case, the Dark Forest) at some point after they die. The best example of this trope is Spottedleaf, who has appeared in almost every single book in the series, even though she died in the very first book.

And now it seems that Brokenstar has attacked Jayfeather from beyond the grave. Yellowfang hints that a massive war between StarClan and the cats of the Dark Forest is coming, and that the living cats will be heavily involved.

My Master, Right or Wrong: Leaders have supreme authority, and their orders are followed, no matter how insane or evil they are.

Tropes N-Y

The Namesake: Midnight is named after the talking badger the cats meet at the end of the book.

Never Say Goodbye: Fireheart does this to Yellowfang when he finds her dying. She starts to tell him something she wants him to hear before she dies, and he stops her, insisting she isn't going to die. She knows she is, though, and continues speaking.

Never Trust a Title: The title is Firestar's Quest, but back when it was released and wasn't quite what readers were expecting, it was often said by fans that Firestar and Sandstorm's Quest would be a more accurate title.

New Era Speech: Tigerstar gives one at a Gathering in The Darkest Hour when he announces the formation of TigerClan.

New Powers as the Plot Demands: A bit of subversion with Lionblaze, since his power covers the incredibly wide umbrella of "being really good at fighting", meaning the authors are able to make them take the shape of whatever they're in the mood for writing. What to show how crazy and out off control he is? He is invulnerable and bloodthirsty to the point where he bathes in his enemies' blood. Need something heavy held up? He has super strength. Bullet time is fun to write? He fights in bullet time.

New Season, New Name: Each series has a different subtitle: Warriors (later renamed Warriors: The Prophecies Begin), Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: Power of Three, Warriors: Omen of the Stars, Warriors: Dawn of the Clans

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hey, Ivypool we know your intentions were good, but trusting the Dark Forest caused Firestar to lose a life and Russetfur to die. Hope the worthless territory was worth it.

No Antagonist: The Sight and Dark River are mainly about the conflict between the Clans and don't have a driving enemy behind them, unlike the other books.

No-One Could Survive That: Hollyleaf at the end of the third arc. Not explicitly invoked, though, so a little less clear odds of coming back than usual.

Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: StarClan. They're supposed to watch over and guide the Clans, but especially in the fourth series they tend to be bickering too much to agree on things.

Oh Crap!: Billystorm pulls this when Leafstar gives him a death glare when their kits tell her that their dad wants to take them to his Twoleg's place to stay safe for a while. In fact, he even drops the squirrel he was carrying when he sees her!

Old Dog: In The Rise of Scourge, an old dog called Sam is sleeping in an alley. Tiny is afraid it'll eat him, but it's too old to chase him, and it loses a tooth as it gets up. As Tiny tries to use the tooth to get his collar off, it gets stuck, and then he claims he got it by killing a dog. So it's thanks to Sam the Old Dog that Tiny became Scourge, leader of BloodClan.

Ominous Owl: Owls are often thought of as ill omens. Justified, since an owl seems quite large to a cat, and owls have been known to carry off kits. However, ThunderClan does occasionally look for owls at night, because if it's windy and they're having trouble scenting prey, they can follow an owl and find prey that way.

The Omniscient: Rock. Cats of the Clans makes it clear that he knows everything about the Clans and Tribe.

One Steve Limit: Averted. There have been three different cats named Birchstar, two Ashfurs, two Greywings, three Rocks, and each healer of the Tribe of Rushing Water adopts the name of Stoneteller, among other examples.

One-Word Title: The entirety of the second series. Also, Outcast, Eclipse, and Sunrise.

Only Known by Their Nickname: Two Tribe of Endless Hunting ancestors named Fall and Slant are mentioned in Sign of the Moon. We never hear their full Tribe names, just their nicknames.

Only Mostly Dead: Leaders stay dead for a few minutes before getting the wound that killed them healed and waking up.

Only Serves for Life: Clan Leaders serve until their death, which can take a while since they're granted nine lives upon becoming leader, so they must die nine times before they'll stay dead. The Clan deputy automatically becomes leader when the leader dies, so this has led to a couple times when a Leader Wannabe deputy decides that his leader's taking too long to die and tries to secretly kill the leader himself.

In Crookedstar's Promise, the titular character is taught by his real mentor, Cedarpelt, but, unknown to other cats, he also is trained in his dreams by the deceased warrior Mapleshade. Mapleshade focuses more on combat skills, while Cedarpelt tries to explain that being a warrior is about more than just being a good fighter. Even their advice on battle moves differs, though that can be explained by the fact that Mapleshade came from another Clan.

In addition, Firestar has a split mentorship for two moons between Lionheart and Tigerstar. As you would expect, they argue a lot. However, two moons into his apprenticeship, he gets Bluestar as his permanent mentor.

Overly Long Name: Most of the cats of the Tribe of Rushing water have these, like Brook Where Small Fish Swim or Teller of the Pointed Stones.

Panicky Expectant Father: Berrynose of all cats. Of course, being Berrynose, he is this in the most annoying and bossy way possible.

Past-Life Memories: Cinderheart has memories of her past life as Cinderpelt, but she has only ever shown signs of remembering them in her dreams, or recalls her past life subconsciously; for example, Cinderpelt's former apprentice Leafpool notes Cinderheart flicks her paw in the same way Cinderpelt did, as well as another character once thinking she was acting Wise Beyond Her Years, and Cinderheart remembering the distance between the Great Sycamore and ThunderClan's camp in the Forest, even though she had been born after the Clans had left the Forest. Eventually she does recover all her memories of being Cinderpelt.

Scourge. AND FUCKING HOW. Despite his small size he rips Tigerstar's stomach opening, killing him nine times. He also manages to kill the main character of the series, and is so badass that he leads a legion of cats that would never dare to question him.

Any apprentice who's worth their salt in battle counts, particularly Thistlepaw from Bluestar's Prophecy. He fought a dog. And won.

Polar Opposite Twins: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, especially when they're apprentices. Squirrelflight is sharp-tongued and energetic, and becomes a warrior, while Leafpool is calm and more reasonable, and becomes a medicine cat. They're even compared directly to fire and water once.

Posthumous Sibling: Plenty of examples, since life in the forest is dangerous and couples often have multiple litters in the books. For instance:

Graystripe has three kits with his new mate, Millie, a few years after his daughter Feathertail died.

Dustpelt and Ferncloud have several litters of kits. Shrewpaw from their first litter and Larchkit and Hollykit of their second litter are dead by the time that Icecloud and Foxleap are born.

Sorreltail's kits Molepaw and Honeyfern have died before Lilyheart and Seedpaw are born.

Power Trio: Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw formed one in Into the Wild before Ravenpaw left. In Power of Three, Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf formed one before Hollyleaf supposedly died. She was then replaced by Dovewing.

Breezepelt does this to Poppyfrost, a heavily pregnant she-cat, and even threatens to kill her to frame Jayfeather. Surprisingly, it's not Poppyfrost's mate who saves her but Jayfeather and a deceased Honeyfern, who was Poppyfrost's sister.

Prequel: Bluestar's Prophecy, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, and Tallstar's Revenge all take place about two generations before the original series. Dawn of the Clans, the fifth series, and Moth Flight's Vision, a Super Edition about a Dawn of the Clans character, take place at the Clans' beginning, long before the other prequels. Code of the Clans spans almost the entire length of time the Clans have existed up until Bluestar's time.

The Promised Land: The prey-rich forest is this in The Sun Trail for the starving cats who travel there from the mountains based on Stoneteller's vision. In the second arc, the lake becomes this when construction destroys the forest and the Clans are forced out. Both lands are good, but they are still susceptible to natural disasters and predators.

Prophecy Pileup: This being a series with lots of prophecies, does this a couple times.

The second series revolves around a prophecy meaning that the forest will be destroyed - one cat from each Clan is chosen to go on a journey to learn how the Clans can survive. (The four do go on the journey, along with two others who chose to come along as well.) This overlaps with two other prophecies:

Shortly before the journeying cats leave, when the heat sets a bush on fire, Cinderpelt has a vision of a tiger leaping in the flames. She determines that it refers to Squirrelpaw (daughter of Firestar) and Brambleclaw (son of Tigerstar), and destruction to the forest; they think that it could possibly mean that the two young cats could somehow cause this desctruction. The "destruction to the forest" is the same as the original prophecy, and the fire and tiger mean that Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw will have something to do with it - they save the Clan from being destroyed when the forest is.

The Tribe of Rushing Water has a prophecy that they will be saved by a silver cat. This cat is believed to be Stormfur, especially since he wasn't actually one of the prophecy cats chosen to go on the journey - he just came along to protect his sister Feathertail, the chosen RiverClan cat. The Tribe's prophecy is actually referring to Feathertail, so she's the subject of two prophecies.

The main prophecy of the third series is "There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws." Throughout the third series, Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf are sure that they are the three - after all, Jayfeather has the ability to walk in other cats' dreams, and Lionblaze can fight without getting hurt. At the end of the series, after Hollyleaf's apparent death, Jayfeather realizes it could refer to one of Whitewing's newborn kits, since they too are Firestar's kin, and Hollyleaf never had a power emerge. Yellowfang speaks a prophecy to Dovepaw to reveal her as the third cat in the "power of three" prophecy: "After the sharp-eyed jay and the roaring lion, peace will come on dove's gentle wing." And then a third prophecy gets piled on towards the end of the Omen of the Stars arc: "The end of the stars draws near. Three must become four to battle the darkness that lasts forever." The "fourth" cat is Firestar, who doesn't really do much in regards to the prophecy, but he does end up making the Big Bad of the entire Warriors series, Tigerstar, Deader Than Dead.

Proud Warrior Race Guy: Just about all of the Clan cats at one point or another, but probably ShadowClan most of all, considering how often their pride is pointed out. They consider themselves to be superior to pretty much any cat that doesn't live in a Clan. Even then, they generally consider their birth Clan to be better than the other three. Outsiders who have joined Clans often have to deal with prejudice against them due to not being "Clanborn".

Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In the Code of the Clans short story where White-eye and Dappletail try fishing, Pinestar tells them "We. Don't. Eat. Fish."

A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Subverted, then averted in Dawn of the Clans. Gray Wing acts as a mentor and father figure to Thunder, his nephew. The reason behind this is because Clear Sky (Thunder's father) was slowly turning into a cruel Anti-Villain . When Gray Wing allows Thunder to visit him, Clear Sky claims custody of his son, who was young and naïve, and decides to mentor him. Gray Wing is powerless against this, and fears that Thunder would be influenced and turn cruel. Averted when Thunder deserts and disowns Clear Sky, seeing the error of his ways. Clear Sky eventually regains his senses, and the three (sort of) make up.

Rage Against the Heavens: Bluestar attempts to after Tigerclaw betrays her—the bad luck that ThunderClan receives afterwards causes her to declare war on her ancestors. She comes around as her children forgive her as she's dying.

Ravenpaw against Tigerclaw when Tigerclaw kills the beloved deputy Redtail.

In Long Shadows, Lionblaze against Ashfur when he finds out about the murderous ways of the cat who taught what he knew.

Rat King: In Firestar's Quest, SkyClan is threatened to be wiped out by a swarm of rats. Firestar realizes that the rats have a leader, which is more intelligent than the others: it is able to speak Cat, and give commands to all the other rats. Once he kills the leader, the rest of the rats have nothing to command them, and they scatter.

Clear Sky gives one to Jagged Peak, who already had self esteem issues.

Dovewing gives one to Ivypool in Night Whispers after Ivypool pushes one too many berserk buttons.

Leafstar gives one to Sol in After The Flood after he steals her kits to rescue them so that he can prove to be a warrior.

Sol gives TWO of these. The first was to Billystorm about being a daylight warrior, and the second was to SkyClan for thinking that the warrior code could keep them safe forever.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, anyone? Squirrelflight's the "red", while Leafpool's the "blue". Their personalities are even compared to fire and water once.

Reformed Criminal: Blackstar. After doing things against the warrior code (stealing kits from another Clan, killing other cats needlessly), he lived as a rogue for a while, but eventually rejoined the Clan, became its leader, and hasn't done anything like that since.

Renowned Selective Mentor: It is considered to be a huge honor to be mentored by the Clan leader or, to a lesser degree, the deputy. It occurs only a couple times in the series, most notably in the first book when Bluestar chooses Firepaw as her apprentice. It is also considered an honor to train as the medicine cat's apprentice, because it is such an important position; each medicine cat only trains one apprentice in their lifetime. In that case, however, it usually isn't a surprise because the younger cat already has an interest in healing and helps out the medicine cat for a while before officially being apprenticed.

Resurrective Immortality: Zigzagged. Leaders have nine lives, so they can come back from being killed, but their ninth death is permanent. As well, they can still die from old age, and some things are powerful enough to take multiple lives, such as Scourge's organ shredding blow in The Darkest Hour and Leopardstar's diabetes in Fading Echoes.

Ever since the first book in the series, Blackstar has had black paws. However, as of Sign of the Moon, he only has one black paw.

Bluestar's Prophecy and Crookedstar's Promise were set in the same timeline. In one shared scene between the two books, in a Gathering, the cats' dialogue was retconned to reference an event in Crookedstar's Promise (which was the later released of the two).

The first book mentioning the founding leaders referred to them with proper Clan names: Thunderstar, Shadowstar, and so on. When they appeared in later books without the "star" on their name, it was retconned that the "star" part in Clan leaders' names came later on and that the founding leaders only get called "Thunderstar"/etc to show them respect. And even later, in Dawn of the Clans, it's revealed that, aside from Thunder, that's only part of their name: Shadow is Tall Shadow, River is River Ripple, and Wind is Wind Runner. Then it was retconned again that they were given the "star" names (and the nine lives that go with them) midway through their careers, but didn't have them when the Clans were formed.

Secrets of the Clans, the first official guidebook, states very clearly that there were originally four clans. In Firestar's Quest, published about a year later, it's revealed that there were originally five clans. All material published after the release of Firestar's Quest, including the other guidebooks, also says there were five to begin with; this includes the whole series about the origins of the Clans. Justified, as Secrets of the Clans was a collection of stories told by elders after the second arc—and by the time those stories were told, nobody remembered that the fifth clan had ever existed.

The first set of six was called simply Warriors, but that became the series name altogether. To distinguish the first six from the rest, fans usually use "the first arc", or "the original series". When it was reprinted with new covers in 2015, it was given the official title The Prophecies Begin.

The Graystripe manga trilogy never had its own trilogy subtitle like the others; perhaps they weren't originally planning on doing more manga after his? The boxed set of his three now calls the trilogy Graystripe's Adventure.

Rite of Passage: Quite a few - apprenticeship represents the end of childhood, and becoming a warrior is a mark of adulthood. Getting your first apprentice is also a meaningful and awaited mark, since it allows a cat to become a deputy. Pretty much any time there is a ceremony going on, it's a rite of passage.

Rodents of Unusual Size: Kind of. Rats are basically just normal-sized rats, but are fearsome and universally loathed by cats. And, of course, rats are much bigger compared to cats than to humans. The authors also have joked that the badgers on the cover of Twilight look like Rodents of Unusual Size.

"Rogue" is a term that is used regularly in the series. Cue bad fanfiction authors spelling it wrong all the time.

Also expect to occasionally find people asking others what their favourite "arch" is, or what "cannon" pairings they like.

The most frequently misspelled names are probably "Scrouge" (Scourge) and "Loinblaze" (Lionblaze).

Rule of Three: The third series, Power of Three, with three protagonists.

Running Gag: Almost every time Runningnose makes an appearance, one of the main characters will remark that he can't be that great of a medicine cat since he can't even cure his own cold. To add to that, in the French version his name literally means "hay fever". Even dying isn't enough to stop him from being the butt of this joke...

Said Bookism Mewed Bookism]]: The word "said" is always replaced with either "mewed" or "meowed." Apart from that, the more normal synonyms for "said," like "warned," "adviced," and so on, are used often.

Sanctuary of Solitude: Occasionally a cat will visit the Moonstone or Moonpool to commune with the spirits of their ancestors when they are troubled.

Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A pretty common mark of a 'good guy' character is to ignore the warrior code when it seems to be getting in the way of morality. Firestar does this a lot in the original series.

Secret Underground Passage: The tunnel under the Thunderpath in ShadowClan territory in the old forest, as well as the tunnels between ThunderClan and WindClan in the lake territories. Also, though they never appear in the original series, there are apparently secret tunnels under WindClan's territory in the old forest.

Series Continuity Error: Lots and lots of them. Most are minor ones, like eye or pelt color changes, and one-off (or permanent) gender changes are relatively common too. Cats appearing after their death (Heavystep, Smokepaw/foot, Clawface in Tigerclaw's Fury, etc) also happens quite a bit.

A Shared Suffering: Brambleclaw is the son of Tigerstar, who terrorized the Clans when he was alive. Because of this, the other cats hate and distrust Brambleclaw; he grows up feeling lonely and uncomfortable around them. (Brambleclaw had a sister, but she left the Clan to get away from this treatment.) When he finds out that Tigerstar had another son - Hawkfrost - he's overjoyed, and the two strike up a fast friendship because of this trope. However, while they share the same memories of prejudice, they deal with it in different ways: Brambleclaw tries desperately to impress his Clanmates and be the best warrior he can be, while Hawkfrost tries to overthrow the Clans and make himself deputy. Unfortunately, when other cats try to warn Brambleclaw of Hawkfrost's bloodthirsty ambitions, he considers it a sign of the same discrimination that he endured, and refuses to listen.

Sickly Green Glow: The Dark Forest glows green. Fits well, having to do with both evil and death.

Sky Face: When Firestar's going on his Quest, he sees his deceased mentor/leader Bluestar's face in the clouds, and she looks worried. This is right before Sandstorm goes missing in the flood.

Slashed Throat: The most commonly used method of killing someone. One of the more realistic, messy examples.

Slasher Smile: Mapleshade. She can make Ivypool feel like Daisy is with her, right before trying to drown her.

Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Basically subscribes to Prophecies Are Guidlelines, Not Rules. StarClan can warn cats that bad stuff is going to happen, and with this foreknowledge cats are often able to avert terrible events. Warriors probably exists somewhere between this and Fighting Fate Is Hard, because only some cats succeed in thwarting fate.

On the other hand, Rock claims to have seen the whole future in a vision and is the one making sure it plays out exactly as it's supposed to. And it does. He's the source of all Star Clan prophecies, who themselves have no clairvoyance. So you might say that any signs of free will simply come from Star Clan not knowing the original vision.

Sliding Scale of Leadership Responsibility: The best leaders tend to be Theodens (who take an equal share in the danger and fight alongside their warriors) with the occasional Superman moment, which is to say that they sometimes take on the most dangerous tasks in order to spare their cats some unreasonable danger. Villains are always Xykons (sacrificing their cats left and right without a care) and Magnetos, who aren't quite as bad as Xykons, but still don't care that much about their followers.

Small Town Boredom: The reason Rusty decides to stop being a kittypet and become a warrior. He's bored with his kittypet life.

Smart People Speak The Queen's English: The last three audiobooks in the The New Prophecy series are read by Nanette Savard, an American actress. The narration and most of the characters are read with an American accent - except, for some reason, the medicine cats, who are read with a British accent. They're regular Clan cats, born and lived with their Clanmates all their lives, and just chose a different job - so where did the accent come from? Are they born with it and for some reason all cats with this accent take the medicine cat's job? Or does healing cats suddenly give you a different accent somehow?

In Into the Wild, Yellowfang sneaks away from ThunderClan camp to chase after Clawface, who she deduces has stolen ThunderClan kits. Firepaw, Ravenpaw, and Graypaw sneak away to chase after her, and so that Firepaw can fake Ravenpaw's death.

In Fire and Ice, Tigerclaw claims to have found evidence of an invasion that the Clan leader Bluestar needs to see. (It's actually a trap he set to kill Bluestar so that he can take over.) However, Bluestar is too sick to go and see, so Fireheart's apprentice Cinderpaw offers to go instead. Fireheart forbids her from going, but she sneaks out of camp anyway and walks into Tigerclaw's trap, causing her to get hit by a car and break her leg.

In Fire and Ice and Forest of Secrets, Graystripe constantly sneaks out of ThunderClan camp so that he can meet with his love interest Silverstream. This is necessary, as they are in a forbidden relationship.

At the beginning of Forest of Secrets, Fireheart and Graystripe sneak away after a Gathering to meet with Ravenpaw so that they can find proof that Tigerclaw murdered Redtail. They later sneak away from ThunderClan territory into RiverClan to find more proof, and eventually to deliver food to the starving Clan.

In Rising Storm, Cloudpaw sneaks away from ThunderClan to get food from humans. Unfortunately for him, this leads to him getting kidnapped.

In A Dangerous Path, after Bluestar refuses to make them warriors, Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneak away from the camp to fight the dogs and prove their valour. Swiftpaw ends up dying in the fight and Brightpaw gets half of her face ripped off.

In The Darkest Hour, it's revealed that Darkstripe has been sneaking away from ThunderClan camp to meet with Tigerstar and give him intel on what ThunderClan is up to.

The New Prophecy begins with a cat from each Clan getting an omen telling them that they need to go on a journey far away from the Clans. Since they can't let their Clanmates in on this, they have to sneak away from the Clans and meet up together for the journey.

In Twilight, Leafpool and Crowfeather sneak away from their Clans to meet up, and eventually run away with each other. Since they didn't tell anyone, their Clans each think that they went to the other Clan.

Dark River is basically "Sneaky Departures, the Book". First, Lionpaw and Heatherpaw are constantly sneaking away at night to meet each other. Then, Hollypaw sneaks away from ThunderClan camp and goes to RiverClan to find out what the huge problem impacting them is. Then, a battle starts when three WindClan kits sneak away from their Clan to explore the tunnels they heard about and WindClan thinks they were kidnapped. In order to stop the battle, two separate groups composed on Lionpaw, Hollypaw, and Jaypaw, and Breezepaw and Heatherpaw sneak away to find the kits.

The plot of Dawn of the Clans is kicked off when Jagged Peak sneaks away from the tribe to join the Followers of the Sun Trail and find a new home, forcing Gray Wing to head after him so that he can keep him safe on the journey.

Spartan Way: ShadowClan's training while Brokenstar is the leader - even kits are forced to train in the brutal battle training, and many end up dying. Dark Forest training also counts.

Speak in Unison: StarClan is described as sounding like every cat Firestar has ever known, all speaking at once in one clear voice.

The first Super Edition, Firestar's Quest, reveals who becomes leader to people who haven't finished the first arc.

The third Super Edition, SkyClan's Destiny both subverts and plays this straight. Every other Super Edition is named for the viewpoint character, which in this case would spoil which member of the newly founded SkyClan becomes leader at the end of Firestar's Quest. However, it doesn't use that format, but still spoils Firestar's Quest by revealing that there's another Clan out there.

One of the manga arcs is called Tigerstar and Sasha, spoiling Tigerclaw becoming a leader for first series readers and the identity of Hawkfrost and Mothwing's father for The New Prophecy readers.

SkyClan and the Stranger continues in the tradition of it's predecessor Super Edition by not revealing who becomes leader in Firestar's Quest, while giving away the earlier revealed spoiler of SkyClan's existence.

The title of the first novella should tell you that Hollyleaf didn't die in Sunrise, because the book is Hollyleaf's Story.

The second e-book is titled Mistystar's Omen, revealing to leaders who haven't read Fading Echoes that Mistyfoot becomes a leader.

The seventh Super Edition is named Bramblestar's Storm. Nice job giving away the ending of The Last Hope, Erins.

Spring Is Late: A plot point in Into the Wild is that spring is late and ThunderClan needs more warriors now, causing its leader Bluestar to take in a kittypet.

Spottedleaf. She had undying love and affection for Firestar, continuing on as a spirit despite how they had no future together. When Firestar fell in love with another, a feisty she-cat named Sandstorm, she coped with her sadness by deciding that she would be okay with it as long as Firestar was happy. She had even died again (this time for good) to protect Sandstorm and Firestar's happiness by proxy.

Thrushpelt was another example. He had one-sided love for Bluestar (Bluefur at the time) and when he realized she had fell pregnant, he respected that she couldn't reveal who the father was and promised her that he would pose as her "mate" to the Clan to protect the secret of her kits, and raise them as his own, because he wanted her happy.

Crowfeather also qualified briefly when he saw that Leafpool was happier with her Clan than with him, but eventually lost that selflessness and became extremely bitter with her choice to the point he was a complete jackass.

Stopped Caring: Bluestar, in books 4 and 5 (Rising Storm and A Dangerous Path) of the first series.

Storming the Castle: The characters will, on rare occasions, attack another Clan's camp instead of just fighting somewhere in the territory. This can be risky, though, as the home Clan knows the best way to defend it, will be fighting more fiercely and desperately to protect the defenseless kits and elders, and the raiding Clan is usually outnumbered. It's worked about as often as it has failed.

In the prologue of Dark River, cats feel that rain is coming. Fallen Leaves then goes to the tunnels to take his test, and lies to Rock that there are no signs of rain. Turns out there is an underground river there, that floods the tunnels during the rain.

In Bluestar's Prophecy, Featherwhisker forecasts rain for a few days, and it starts raining just before the battle with WindClan.

Strange Salute: The Tribe's greeting gesture: extending one paw while bowing the head.

Succession Crisis: Happens a couple times, despite the fact that the Clans' hierarchy is set up in a way to avoid it.

In the second series, Tallstar, leader of WindClan, announces with his dying breaths that Mudclaw is no longer his deputy: Onewhisker now is. Since deputy succeeds leader, and Tallstar managed to announce his decision only to Onewhisker, Firestar (Onewhisker's friend), and Brambleclaw (Firestar's trusted warrior), many WindClan cats don't believe it, and start a civil war supporting the old deputy.

The guidebookCode of the Clans explains how this setup came to be, after two specific crises: The deputy-becomes-leader rule started after there was a case where a leader selected his son as his successor. The son led his Clan into a needless fight, where half the cats disagreed with his choice and those that did listen nearly drowned. He realized that the deputy, due to her rank, had more experience in being in charge of the Clan. The rule that states that the new deputy must be chosen before moonhigh was created after a new leader waited too long to choose her deputy. She died of sickness, leaving the Clan leaderless and with two more dead cats who had attempted to fight for leadership. Eventually the spirit of the previous leader tells the medicine cat in a dream to choose who the new leader will be.

Switching P.O.V.: The first arc used this only for prologues but it became normal in all the other series due to their multiple protagonists. The New Prophecy has Leafpaw and one other cat per book (Brambleclaw or Squirrelpaw, mainly; one book had Stormfur and a couple chapters of Feathertail). Power of Three has Hollypaw, Lionpaw, and Jaypaw. Omen of the Stars has Jayfeather, Lionblaze, Ivypaw, and Dovepaw (and Flametail for one book). Dawn of the Clans has Gray Wing, Thunder, and Clear Sky, with a bonus scene from a different POV at the end of each book.

Sympathetic P.O.V.: The Ultimate Guide is narrated in third person, but the information given is noticeably slanted towards whoever's life its recounting. For example, Ashfur's omits his betrayal of Thunder Clan to Hawkfrost, which nearly killed Firestar (as Ashfur hoped it would) in favor of saying that he "was not a friend of Firestar", and describes him as a "good mentor" when he actively sabotaged Lionblaze's training. However, this could also be the result of Flip-Flop of God - the different authors do not agree on his characterization.

Taking the Bullet: Red does this for Harley in SkyClan's Destiny, jumping in the way when Stick goes for Harley's throat.

Talking in Your Dreams: StarClan does this all the time, and so does Tigerstar in the second series and onward. Jayfeather is the only living character who can do this to other living cats. Some experiences with dreamwalking has also shown that characters who are wounded in dreams sustain the same injuries in the waking world - it is even possible to be killed in a dream.

Thank Your Prey: This is one of the rules in the warrior code, to thank StarClan for the life the prey had given up to feed the Clan. Averted, however, with Tigerstar: he feels that he doesn't owe StarClan any thanks because he caught the prey himself.

That Old Time Prescription: Medicine cats use remedies like poppy seeds as a sedative. The authors took much of the medicine cats' herblore from an old book called Culpeper's Herbal.

Thou Shalt Not Kill: Battles are relatively common, but killing is seen as dishonourable, and is generally avoided, except by Tigerstar and Scourge. In fact, the main characters of the first two series have only killed one cat each. Oddly enough, they both killed their own half brothers.

Although Firestar becomes a pacifist in the second and third series, in the first series he showed absolutely no aversion to killing. For example, when Whitestorm has to restrain him from killing Clawface, him believing that he and Tigerstar were destined to fight to the death, and saying that Brokenstar deserved to die.

This could be justified as Character Development. Firestar was young at the time and probably didn't fully realize what the ramifications of his actions could be if he killed Clawface, and he was absolutely horrified by Tigerstar's death.

Throne Made of X: In The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar takes control of both RiverClan and ShadowClan, and has them build him the Bonehill, a pile of bones to sit on so he can look down on everyone else.

Thunder Equals Downpour: In Beyond the Code. They're at a Gathering with the full moon shining down between a couple sparse clouds. The cats comment on how the drought might end since the air's cooler. An argument starts, Sol runs away in anger. Next panel: lightning flash and a KABOOM! Next panel: Downpour. The rain is even enough to flood almost the entire gorge that same night.

Title Drop: In the prologue for the fifth book of Power of Three, Rock makes a reference to "the power of three", and in Omen of the Stars, Yellowfang mentions "an Omen of the Stars" (capitalized like a title) in the prologue of the very first book.

There are no less than three echo related metaphors used in Fading Echoes.

In Sign of the Moon, the last series' title, Power of Three, is dropped: after Jayfeather realizes that Lion's Roar and Dove's Wing are reincarnations of Lionblaze and Dovewing, he says that the Power of Three has begun. And it is capitalized.

The Last Hope, however, takes the cake. It gets dropped at least five times in the book, two of them from the prologue alone.

In his manga trilogy, Ravenpaw gets his tongue stuck to some ice in a gutter on the barn roof.

Hollyleaf gets this too in Sunrise, up to the point where she gets playfully teased that she found a new way to get water for the elders. It's thanks to Brambleclaw breathing on the ice that she got free.

Tonight, Someone Dies: And one more warrior may be lost forever..., which likely referred to Hollyleaf. The word "lost" is probably meant to be taken literally, since she is indeed lost at the end and doesn't actually die. It could also refer to how she has "lost" her sanity, or "lost" her status as a warrior because she has turned her back on the Clans and the warrior code.

Also, Twilight opens with an unidentified cat being told that they will die soon, leaving the reader in suspense over who it will be. It turns out to be Cinderpelt.

Trapped in Another World: Jayfeather in Long Shadows when he goes back to the time of the Ancients and can only go home after influencing them to go to the mountains.

Trauma Conga Line: SkyClan gets this a lot: originally they lost most of their territory due to Twolegs and began to starve, and then were driven out of the forest by other Clans; when they found the gorge, the remainder of the Clan was either killed by rats or split up. Special mention goes to their situation in Hawkwing's Journey: First they lose Duskpaw in a fire, then are unable to figure out the meaning of the prophecy Echosong received: when they try to follow it, cats (including Billystorm) die. The Clan is also attacked by raccoons at least twice, killing at least one and injuring others. Then Darktail's allies attack the gorge, forcing the Clan to flee. Several cats are killed in the battle (and one drowns in the river during their flight); several others go missing. The Clan decides that their only hope is to leave to find the other Clans, and several of their cats stay behind. SkyClan ends up running into trouble in Stick and Dodge's city and an apprentice is taken hostage, although at least SkyClan makes it out without losing anyone. Two cats leave to stay with Barley in his barn. During their journey, the pregnant Pebbleshine is kidnapped by Twolegs, and cats are frequently injured. They think they've found their new home by the lake, but the Clans have never lived by this particular lake, and the area proves to be too dangerous after multiple encounters with a hawk, dogs, and Twolegs (during which several more cats are captured by Twolegs, including a medicine cat apprentice.) A couple cats more decide to become kittypets. Then SkyClan falls ill with a sickness while the medicine cat is away, which kills a few more. They are in their darkest hour, saying that SkyClan is over, when finally a few missing Clan members find them, they are able to cure the sickness, and Echosong receives a new prophecy, leaving a spot of hope.

Treachery Cover-Up: When Hollyleaf dies in the tunnels after trying to escape from her Clan and everything that had gone wrong, Lionblaze and Jayfeather cover up her treachery by telling the Clan she had died chasing a squirrel into the tunnel, so that she would be remembered as a brave hunter rather than Ashfur's killer.

It's hard to judge whether or not they did this for Hawkfrost. They did cover up the fact that Brambleclaw killed him, but there is conflicting evidence on whether or not they covered up why he was killed. In The Sight, some warriors have a conversation about the mysterious circumstances of his death, and say that his Clanmates mourned him, and RiverClan seems relatively ignorant of his treachery in other books, which would suggest he did get a cover-up. But then in After Sunset: We Need To Talk, Cloudtail says to a WindClan patrol that Hawkfrost tried to kill Firestar, which suggests everyone knows about it.

Ashfur after Long Shadows, and Tigerstar after he is exiled in Forest of Secrets.

Truce Zone: The Clans agree not to fight at Fourtrees and the Gathering Island, and meet there every full moon for a Gathering, where they share news and can chat with cats from other Clans.

The most stereotypical example of a tsundere started with Sandstorm in [[The Original Series]]. She initially held great dislike for the main character Firestar because of his kittypet background, but saw him differently after he saved her. Sandstorm became close friends and eventually mates with him as she fell deeply in love with Firestar; however that never stopped her from expressing her opinion! She got into many fights with him and was quick to annoy, much to Firestar's respect but discomfort.

Fittingly, both of Sandstorm's daughters become second-generation tsunderes as well. Squirrelflight most notably, seen in her hot-headed nature and dislike of Brambleclaw at the start until she eventually came to love him. Leafpool, however, also showed some traits of this through her relationship with Crowfeather; she disliked his attitude, but then fell in love with him. Not only that, but her previous gentle personality becomes more tempermental as she gets older (A Type B at the most)

Yellowfang. She was one of the most sharp-tongued she-cats in the series, though underneath it all was extremely compassionate and good-hearted. These two sides of hers were most frequently brought up through her interactions with Fireheart and Cinderpelt.

Bluestar in her youth. She was extremely proud, ambitious, and independent. Her "deredere" and "tsuntsun" sides were most frequently seen with her mate Oakheart. She hated his cockiness and arrogance right from the get-go, but fell genuinely in love with him and never did with another despite her difficultness.

Vicky has admitted to using fans' warrior names. Some of them, she has said, are from fans she met on tours, or from letters sent to her - none of these are known by anyone except her at this point. Some of them also came from online fans' names, notably from the sites Wands And Worlds and Warrior's Wish - confirmed ones include Lakestorm, Quailfeather, Flintfang, and Blizzardstar (tribute to Blizz, creator of Warrior's Wish, the largest fansite.)

Brightspirit, Shiningheart, and Braveheart are based on ten-year-old fan Emmy Cherry and her parents Jimmy and Dana, who all died in a tornado in February 2008. Vicky sent a message to Wands and Worlds so that the members there could offer words of support and comfort to Emmy's family. They gave Emmy and her parents warrior names to honor them. Vicky decided to use those names in the next book, Long Shadows, which she also dedicated to them.

Ivypool, a main character in Omen of the Stars, is named after a person too. While Ivy herself, as a baby, was too young to have read the books when her name was used, her family has gone to see the author on every single one of her tours, earning them the nickname "FarDrivingClan" from Vicky, and they have become good friends with her. She decided to name the character after the youngest member of the family - warrior name and all, because Ivy's full name is Ivy Poole.

Scourge turning against Tigerstar, although Rise of Scourge actually gives him an ulterior motive for killing him.

Hawkfrost turning on Mudclaw might count, too. Although, it is highly likely that Hawkfrost was actually pulling the strings, which would mean he was the master, making this more a case of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.

Twin Telepathy: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, while not identical twins, were of the same litter, and exhibit some signs of this: they can sense each other's emotions, and have shared dreams and sensations on occasion.

The very last line of Rising Storm, which reveals that Tigerclaw has become ShadowClan's new leader.

Long Shadows: Ashfur is evil. Squirrelflight isn't the mother of Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Hollyleaf. Ashfur is dead. Cue cliffhanger.

Sunrise: It turns out that Hollyleaf killed Ashfur, and Leafpool is the mother of the Three. Then Hollyleaf runs away, and is possibly dead. Oh, and she was never a real member of the Three.

SkyClan and the Stranger: The Rescue: Harry is Sol, the villain of Power of Three.

The Sun Trail has a huge one. Storm is in a building with the kits she and Clear Sky had. Gray Wing talks to her, then leaves. Only for it to be revealed that, crap, the building was scheduled to be demolished. Gray Wing rushes back in, but it's too late for Storm and her kits. Wait, what's this? One of them survived? And then as Gray Wing is wondering about its name, Turtle Tail pipes up, "What about Thunder?" Well played, Erins.

Unbroken Vigil: When Brightpaw gets attacked by dogs, after staying with her a full night, Cloudtail still refuses to eat or sleep, until Cinderpelt finally orders him to.

Some have strange given names. Kinkfur, Runningnose, Foxheart (It Makes Sense in Context for it to be unfortunate, as "fox-heart" is a feline team meaning treacherous and cowardly), Sneezekit, Deadfoot, Mudpuddle, Maggottail...

A lot of the characters' names in SkyClan's Destiny and the SkyClan manga trilogy, are meant to be horrible, to point out how SkyClan is different from the other Clans - they're nothing but a kittypet name with a warrior ending added on: Billystorm, Harveymoon, Harrykit.

Some characters' names were picked by other characters and meant to be cruel: Lostface and Crookedkit.

Vagueness Is Coming: Many vague prophecies fortell destruction and danger without actually managing to tell the Clans what exactly is coming.

In Yellowfang's Secret: "A poison will spring from the heart of ShadowClan, and spread to the other Clans. A storm of blood and fire will sweep the forest."

In SkyClan's Destiny: "Greenleaf will come, but it will bring even greater storms than these. SkyClan will need deeper roots if it is to survive."

In Fire and Ice: "A battle is coming, Fireheart. Beware a warrior you cannot trust."

In Rising Storm: "Beware an enemy who seems to sleep."

In The Darkest Hour: "Blood will rule the forest."

In Midnight: "Darkness, Air, Water and sky will come together and shake the forest to its roots. Nothing will be as it is now, nor as it has been before."

In The Fourth Apprentice: "Beware, Jay's Wing. Storm clouds are gathering on a dark breeze."

In Sign of the Moon: "The end of the stars draws near. Three must become four to battle the darkness that lasts forever."

Villain Ball: Tigerstar apparently has nothing better to do in the afterlife than harass the descendants of a cat whose worst crime against him was to foil an evil scheme or two. He shows less resentment toward the cat who killed him nine times.

Tigerstar actually has more than bothering Firestar in mind, as shown as his plans become more clear in Omen of the Stars. As for why he doesn't resent Scourge... well, it's kind of hard to resent someone who's soul doesn't exist in any known afterlife, isn't it? This still doesn't justify his only recently broken long streak of lackluster villainy, though.

Tigerstar wanted to unite all the Clans into one, ending the constant war and bringing about a new age of prosperity. Of course, his ego and his methods were less than desirable.

Hawkfrost followed his father's vision, but with just as much ego and a lot less success.

The Watcher: StarClan very pointedly state that they give advice, and watch over the living cats, but they do not interfere directly (they've bent that rule once or twice, but it's extremely rare). This makes it seem a bit silly when the Clans are constantly worried about incurring the "wrath of StarClan". Cinderpelt even has to remind the ThunderClan cats at one point that not every inconvenient natural phenomena is necessarily a sign from their ancestors: "There are times when a storm is just a storm."

Oddly enough, everyone - fans included - seems to hate Sol because he tells them this. True, he does go overboard by telling ShadowClan to ignore the warrior code, and he's got far more villainous actions later on when trying to cause a war between the Clans, but it is kind of weird that everyone hates him just for saying StarClan isn't all powerful, even though that's exactly what they've been telling us for pretty much the entire series.

ThunderClan has to watch the forest burn from across the river in Rising Storm.

All the Clans face this in The New Prophecy when Twolegs destroy the forest and they have to watch, knowing that there's nothing they can do about it.

In Dark River, RiverClan faces this when a group of Twolegs attack their camp. However, they eventually get it back.

The SkyClan saga prequel novella Cloudstar's Journey shows this happening to SkyClan while their home is developed to make way for a suburb. Cloudstar is helpless as trees around him are torn down, and it's pretty heartbreaking.

Happens in the Warrior's Refuge and Warrior's Return comic book spinoffs when Graystripe triumphantly returns to the forest, only to find it completely destroyed. He wanders around the destruction for a little while before Millie convinces him that his Clanmates are still out there somewhere.

Jayfeather: "There will be three, kin of your kin...Cloudtail is Firestar's kin, Whitewing is his daughter, and now Dovekit and Ivykit...Don't you see? The prophecy isn't over! We aren't the only kin of Firestar's kin. It doesn't matter which of Whitewing's kits is the one. There are still three of us!"

The Sun Trail

Turtle Tail: "How about Thunder?"

What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite being the sole reason for the Clans' misery, humans are never harmed in the books. In fact, they occasionally get saved by the cats. Graystripe and Millie lead a toddler away from drowning in a pond, for instance. Special mention goes to when a child falls into SkyClan's territory and breaks her leg. The cats go out of their way to help the kid, find her family in the Twolegplace, and bring her home safely, when the more pragmatic approach would be to simply kill her, or leave her to die. It makes more sense why they'd do this, however, when you consider that most of the cats in those situations were kittypets at one point (or still partially are). The reason SkyClan didn't physically harm Petalnose and Shrewtooth's old Twoleg was because they were warned by the kittypets how dangerous it is to attack a Twoleg. Considering how uptight people are about getting rid of pests and potentially rabid animals, this was probably a smart move. Also, it isn't exactly realistic for a group of wild cats to go maul a human to death.

When I Was Your Age...: Elders claim this on occasion - for example, Fireheart gets into a small argument with one in Forest of Secrets when the elder claims that young cats nowadays don't know what hardship is.

Where It All Began: When the Clans leave, they end up settling by a lake. Turns out their distant ancestors (way before the Clans formed) once lived there, and that that's where the Power of Three prophecy originated.

The field guides Secrets of the Clans, Cats of the Clans, Code of the Clans, and Battles of the Clans.

A few non-Field Guide books as well: Forest of Secrets, Sign of the Moon, The Rise of Scourge, The Heart of a Warrior.

The series name Dawn of the Clans.

You Dirty Rat: The rats in Firestar's Quest and SkyClan's Destiny are evil. In addition, the rats in Into the Wild, Midnight, and Crookedstar's Promise attack the cats, and ShadowClan has to be careful to not bring infected rats back from the Carrionplace. The portrayal of rats results in quite a few fans complaining.

Your Days Are Numbered: Twilight opens with an unidentified cat being warned of their impending doom. It's later revealed to be Cinderpelt.

Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: In one story in Code of the Clans, a group of young RiverClan cats decide to try things such as "jumping into the gorge" for no reason other than youthful stupidity.

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